Pablo González

Conductor

Principal Conductor – Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra (RTVE) and Artistic Adviser to the Orchestra and Choir 

Biography

Hailed as one of the most passionate conductors of his generation, Pablo González recently completed his four-years long term as the Principal Conductor of the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra (RTVE) and Artistic Adviser to the Orchestra and Choir, having appeared regularly at Madrid’s Teatro Monumental. Pablo previously served as Music Director of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona I Nacional de Catalunya (10/15). 

Pablo’s tenure in Madrid was characterized by the diversity of the repertoire, including the cycles: ‘Music under suspicion’, focusing in soviet composers under Stalin’s rule, ‘Echoes of the Belle Époque’, which culminated with a highly praised semi-staged performance of Bizet’s ‘Carmen’, ‘ Musical revolutions’ and ‘Roots’, an exploration of the influence of folk elements in XIX and XXth century orchestral repertoire. Berlioz, Mahler and Szymanowski received special attention, as well as well-established and emerging spanish contemporary composers. Full Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms cycles were also accomplished during these years.

During his tenure with the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona I Nacional de Catalunya, Pablo conducted a vast array of repertoire including full Mahler and Schumann cycles; led a central European tour including a highly successful appearance at Vienna’s Konzerthaus; recorded and released three volumes of orchestral works by Enrique Granados, and Bizet’s Carmen and L’Arlesienne suites (Naxos); and championed many new pieces by Catalan and Spanish composers. While in Barcelona, Pablo’s involvement with opera and choral music was also remarkable, strengthening the relationship with Barcelona’s Teatre Liceu with titles such as Strauss’ Daphne, Wagner’s Rienzi, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and Puccini’s Il tabarro, as well as all of Mahler’s orchestral lieder. Pablo also brought the orchestra back to the streets of Barcelona, reappearing at the popular “Festes de la Mercé”, and he led “Et toca a tu”: a mould-breaking social and collaborative project, bringing the musicians of the OBC together with children from neighborhoods at risk of social exclusion.

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Recent News

Pablo González Returns to Germany to Conduct the Dresden Philharmonic

This week, Pablo González returns to Germany to conduct a vibrant programme with the Dresden Philharmonic, in a series of three concerts from 26-28 May at the Konzertsaal im Kulturpalast, Dresden. The programme features Ligeti's Lontano, Prokofiev's Violin Concerto...

Reviews

“Pablo González offered an immediately convincing performance, sustained from start to finish by an epic drive where religious faith, popular melodies and warlike ferocity intermingled.”

“Despite the number of performers and the rich instrumentation, Pablo González managed to maintain both the coherence and the unity of the narrative, achieving good balance with the singers, clarity of texture and providing an excellent design, allowing the very inspired members of the Orchestre Nationale d’Île-de-France to shine in the solo and the tutti passages.”

Patrice Imbaud

ResMusica

“Spanish conductor Pablo González succeeded from the start in achieving the perfect articulation for Prokofiev’s folk-inspired melodies. […] Under his baton, the basses’ purring guided the modelling of the landscapes. He showed an impressive control of the orchestra during the grandiose rides, to the vertiginous sound of the trumpet, and the stormy passages, as well as throughout the more sombre and melodramatic passages, reminiscent of Mahler’s. He managed to keep the balance between solemnity and the characters’ progress, even without the support of Eisenstein’s images. […] Pablo made good the score’s greatness, be it when illustrating events, nature or ideas. He let the music run its crazy course as if he were watching a silent film and going along with it, which prevented his giving in to stress or extravagance.”

Thibault Vicq

Opera Online

“González’s merit is that he creates a musical cosmos in which the music breaths and swells, he allows the dialogue between the orchestra sections and its soloists and he is able to connect with the audience. Not many conductors are capable of such a feat.”

Alejandro Fernández

La opinión de Málaga

“Pablo Gonzalez’s conducting was extraordinary: expressiveness, dynamism, rhythm, precision and, above all, musicality. […] He brought out the best out of the orchestra. An interpretation of those that one will never forget. […] The audience acknowledged the fantastic work of both conductor and orchestra with a great ovation.”

Michael Thallium

Scherzo

“With his debut conducting the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Pablo González unleashed two repertoire classics and set the scene with a homogeneous, yet transparent approach combined with a flawless sound. A real discovery of this guest conductor!”

The Hamburger Abendblatt

“On Thursday night, we could experience yet another exquisite program in SSO’s main series, connecting Ligeti’s work Lontano from 1967 with Berg’s Seven Early songs from 1906-8 and with Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra from 1895. (….)

Performing it (Ligeti’s Lontano) convincingly is difficult for most orchestras. The interpretation of SSO under Pablo Gonzalez was utterly compelling. (…) It was an organic performance (of Berg’s Seven Early Songs), with elaborate playing from the orchestra and lots of fine detail work. (…) The interpretation (of Also sprach Zarathustra) didn’t fall into mere episodes; instead, it illuminated the long harmonic line with which Strauss connects the nine chapters from Nietzsche’s novel.” 

 

Arnfinn Bø-Rygg

Stavanger Aftenblad

More Reviews

“With his virtuosic baton technique, impulsive sign language, and evident empathy, Gonzalez made a convincing contribution to this music. Russian themes, along with those of dreams, were the headline. Moody expanse was created in the Adagio, with a folk-like horn sound, followed by the darting, graceful Scherzando and a sweeping waltz. Even the final, counterpoint-adorned, rapid dance with its banal closing bars came together, under Gonzalez’s direction, in harmonious unity. A perfect Russian evening.”

Saarbruecker-Zeitung

“[Pablo González] provided the score [Madama Butterfly] with a symphonic feel that greatly benefited the musical discourse. Ample and varied dynamics, richness in timbre and a deep engagement from the Oviedo Filarmonía were all key elements.”

Ramón Avello, El Comercio

“Conductor Pablo González is a real discovery!”

Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (May 2019)

“González and the Bochum Symphony Orchestra found an approach [to Berlioz’s Death of Cleopatra] that got under the skin. By the end of the piece the public was rightly enthusiastic and cheering everyone involved.”

Online Music Magazine (May 2019)

“Even in the problematic acoustics of the City Theatre, González was able to bring the qualities of this orchestra to light. His conducting is highly descriptive, the smallest accents of the hand, suggestive gestures, sometimes even of the whole body, transfer directly to sound and musical character.”

— Gießener Anzeiger (March 2019)

“The Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra was clearly blown away by its spirited guest conductor Pablo González. With clear gestures and rhythmic finesse, he interpreted a convincing sound panorama with the very gifted orchestra. The orchestra were alert, performing on the edge of the chair and absorbed every energetic impulse of its tireless conductor. Fabulously dynamic…”

— Online Merker (March 2019)

“The man on the podium quickly became united with his Rhineland musicians through an exposition of powerfully emphatic and accentuated manoeuvres. He struck into the orchestra with his beats, ducked as smoothly as the springing sound of his strings – a successful warm-up for the orchestra.”

— Kölnische Rundschau (January 2019)

“The Spanish conductor, Pablo Gonzáles, rendered Schumann’s filigrane score with equal precision and expression.”

Kölner Stadtanzeiger (January 2019)

“Pablo González’s vehement conducting was effectively accurate and succeeded in getting across a wide variety of emotions, bewitching the audience.”

— Christoph Zimmermann, Opernfreund, (January 2019)

“Following intermission, in Manuel de Falla’s ballet suite “El sombrero de tres picos”, Gonzalez unleashed an impassioned and temperamental conducting style that enticed the essential tonal nuances and rich palette of orchestral colours out of the Philharmonic.”

—  Mareile Hanns, Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten (January 2019)

“A successful debut… Both orchestra and conductor transform Manuel de Falla’s ballet suites into a brilliant and richly contrasting declaration of love to happiness, cheerfulness and fearlessness.”

— Rainer Kasselt, Sächsische Zeitung (January 2019)

“Here, guest conductor Pablo Gonzalez also proved his qualities: in the Scherzo movement, he kindled southern heat, sharply emphasising the rhythms and dances, as if these were actually Finnish pieces from Spain, and in the finale you could feel the atmospheric timbre with your hands. Nerve-shattering tremolo were followed by relentless beats, sudden crashes, and dark tones. In a wide arc, and with a long breath, the musicians and conductor created a colourful and captivating interpretation, which once again clarified why this concert by the Wüttembergischen Philharmonie Reutlingen has been sold out for so long. Orchestral music is such a pleasure.”

— Susane Eckstein, SWP.de (March 2018)

“…González gave the CBSO its head in an account as attentive to detail as to the fantasia-like structure. Not its least attraction was a thoughtful approach to the coda, tender and affecting without a hint of that sentimentality such as Mussorgsky would have abjured.(…) González (conducting without score) audibly enjoyed conducting it in the acoustic of Symphony Hall. (…) the music’s unity and cumulative impact was never in doubt as it took in (inter alia) an irascible ‘Gnomus’, seismic ‘Bydlo’ and plangent ‘Catacombae’ prior to a vaunting ‘Baba Yaga’ then a ‘Great Gate of Kiev’ that built steadily and securely to its resplendent close. Job well done.”

— Richard Whitehouse, Classical Source (February 2017)

“Splendid job, that of Pablo González (Oviedo, 1975) during the first of the two concerts of this season’s 5th programme of the ROSS (Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville). The Asturian conductor succeeded in molding the orchestra according to each composer’s style, offering a compelling performance of the three pieces”.

— Pablo J. Vayón, Diario de Sevilla

(English translation by Covadonga González Bernardo)

“And last, but not least, on the honour roll, the extraordinary work of the Oviedo-born conductor Pablo González (1975). To each his own, and in this concert, and for the whole programme, he gets the highest place on the podium. It’s just fair”.

JOSÉ LUIS LÓPEZ LÓPEZ (ABC, Seville).

(English translation by Covadonga González Bernardo)

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