Michelle Tosi, for resmusica.com (click here to read more)
"IRCAM´s Espace de Projection shaping the acoustics of the hall for the last work on the programme, … explosante-fixe… (...) The NEXT ensemble, joined by soloists from the EIC, is conducted by Spanish conductor Daniel Huertas. (...) The flow is tense and dense, with a first movement bursting with energy, featuring tempo fluctuations and spectacular rallies. (...) The MIDI flute part is conductive, embellished by its two off-centre partners (Emmanuel Ophèle and Sophie Cherrier) and a discreet instrumental ensemble (muted strings) that completes the texture, under the economical and precise baton of Daniel Huertas."
Paco Yañez, for scherzo.es (click here to read more)
“Daniel Huertas, with absolute metrical precision, has managed to strike a very pertinent balance between the serenity and delicacy that pervades most of the work and an outburst of individual energies and harmonic-noise counterpoints worthy of an ensemble with much more experience playing together.”
Pierre Gervasoni, for lemonde.fr (click here to read more)
"Rarely performed in its entirety, … explosante-fixe… (1993) is then presented in excerpts. (…) Today's line-up is a mix of seasoned musicians (Ensemble intercontemporain) and representatives of the younger generation (Ensemble Next, from the Paris Conservatoire), conducted with conviction by Daniel Huertas. As one might say of the interpretation of the classical repertoire (a label that applies to Boulez in view of what is being done today), the future is assured."
Andréas Harry, for Luzerner Zeitung (click here to read more)Conductor Daniel Huertas sets a brisk two-four time, the key of E flat minor sounds, and it stays that way. Casual Latin rhythms accompany a mix of sounds that stylistically fall somewhere between George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein – tuned. The gripping groove of the composition is conveyed by the young musicians of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (LFCO). Spontaneous applause breaks out when an instrumental group immediately masters a challenging passage in rehearsal.
Interview with Ismael G. Cabral for El Compositor Habla (click here to read more)When you interpret a new score, your reading of the score is what you can hold on to, along with working hand in hand with the composer and the instrumentalists. The result is a fresh, natural and very organic type of work, far removed from dogmas that tend to create more headaches than anything else. I am transferring this to older pieces, actively striving to approach the score as if it were the first time it were being played. This does not mean that I seek to reinvent the wheel with each version, far from it. Instead, I am attracted to honesty, personal assimilation of the musical discourse, and the ability to always approach a score with freshness.
