ORQUESTA NACIONAL DE ESPAÑA
PABLO GONZÁLEZ, director
Oscar Esplá, El sueño de Eros
Mahler, Sinfonía núm. 5
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SPANISH NATIONAL ORCHESTRA AND CHOIR
Created in 1937 by the Government of the Second Republic as the National Concert Orchestra, and after a brief season of performances in Barcelona in 1938, the National Orchestra of Spain, now under its current name, resumed activity after the hiatus caused by the Civil War in March 1942. Since then, it has maintained an intense concert life that includes its regular series in Madrid —where it has been based at the National Auditorium of Music since 1988— and appearances at the main Spanish festivals and tours across Spain, Europe, America and Asia.
With the start of the 2026/27 season, the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir -united as one institution since 1971-, begins a new stage with the appointment of American conductor Kent Nagano as principal and artistic director. This appointment reaffirms the OCNE’s commitment to international projection.
Before Maestro Nagano, the podium of the National Orchestra of Spain was held on a regular basis by David Afkham (from 2014 to 2026), Bartolomé Pérez Casas, Ataúlfo Argenta, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Antoni Ros-Marbà, Jesús López Cobos, Aldo Ceccato and Josep Pons. As guest conductors, the National Orchestra in its early years worked with masters of the stature of Sergiu Celibidache, Ígor Markévitch, Rafael Kubelik, Zubin Mehta and Riccardo Muti, and, in more recent times, with figures such as Yuri Temirkánov, Ton Koopman, Gustavo Dudamel, Semyon Bychkov, Leonard Slatkin, Christoph Eschenbach, Pablo Heras-Casado, Giovanni Antonini, Juanjo Mena, Joana Mallwitz, Jörg Widmann, Simone Young, Anja Bihlmaier, Gemma New, Vladimir Ashkenazy, William Christie and Susana Mälkki.
Since September 2014, the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir has released several recordings on its own label. Previously, it issued albums such as Sonata suite, awarded the Latin Grammy for Best Flamenco Album in 2010, and El amor brujo with Estrella Morente (Deutsche Grammophon), as well as monographic recordings devoted to Benet Casablancas (Diverdi) and Cesar Camarero (Kairos). More recently, the OCNE label has released symphonies by Mahler and Shostakovich, with David Afkham; concertante works by Ginastera and Rodrigo, under the direction of Juanjo Mena; and heritage recoveries of Ramón Carnicer and Manuel García.
The Spanish National Orchestra and Choir is a production unit attached to the National Institute for the Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), part of the Ministry of Culture.
PABLO GONZÁLEZ. Conductor
Recognised as one of the most versatile and passionate conductors of his generation, Pablo González is a musician who conveys great inspiration both to orchestras and to audiences around the world, “attentive to every silence and every entry of the symphony orchestra as a whole, weaving and bringing order to this tonal revolution” (OperaWorld).
He has been Principal Conductor of the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra and Choir (2019–2023) and of the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (2010–2015), Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and Assistant Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Among his recent and forthcoming engagements are appearances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, The Hallé, Helsinki Philharmonic, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Dresden Philharmonic, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Strasbourg Philharmonic, Orchestre National d’Île de France, Stavanger Symphony, Residentie Orkest, Liège Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, etc.
In Spain, he maintains a close relationship with the Spanish symphony orchestras, regularly appearing with them at different international festivals.
As an opera conductor, notable engagements include Don Giovanni and L’elisir d’amore in two successful Glyndebourne Tours, Carmen (San Sebastián Musical Fortnight), Una voce in off, La voix humaine, Die Zauberflöte, Daphne and Rienzi at the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), Tosca and Madama Butterfly (Oviedo Opera).
He has collaborated with soloists such as Maxim Vengerov, Nikolai Lugansky, Javier Perianes, Khatia Buniatishvili, Beatrice Rana, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Sol Gabetta, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Isabelle Faust, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Arcadi Volodos, Viktoria Mullova, Johannes Moser, Truls Mørk and Viviane Hagner.
Among his recordings, noteworthy is the Enrique Granados monographic set in three volumes, as well as a CD featuring Bizet’s Carmen and L’Arlésienne suites, recorded with the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya for the Naxos label. Pablo González enjoys an ongoing collaboration with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern (DRP), with whom he will soon record a CD of music by Emanuel Moor; his recording of Schumann with Lena Neudauer has been awarded the prestigious International Classical Music Award.
Born in Oviedo, Pablo González studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (London). He currently lives in the city of Oviedo.
