On his first recording for harmonia mundi, conductor Pablo Heras-Casado - whose conducting career encompasses the great symphonic and operatic repertoire, historically informed performance and cutting-edge contemporary scores - offers a fresh look at the symphonies of Franz Schubert.
Leading the period-instrument Freiburger Barockorchester, Heras-Casado pairs the lighthearted Symphony No.3 of 1815, which ends with a Rossinian tarantella, with the darker Symphony No.4 "Tragic", written one year later and looking more towards Beethoven. Echoing the Fourth's subtitle, it is a sad fact that this symphony, like all his others, was never played in public in the composer's lifetime. In 2011, Pablo Heras-Casado began a close collaboration with the Freiburger Barockorchester. "We've clicked so well together," Mr. Heras-Casado told the New York Times. "Phrasing and harmonic sensibility and polyphonic sense - all that background we have in common. So when we have a dialogue when rehearsing, we speak the same language."Videos