Biography
Josep Pons has been the Music Director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu since 2012, and his latest renewal extends his tenure until 2026.
Over these years, he has conducted around forty titles, with special attention to the great works of the 19th and 20th-century repertoire, such as the Ring Cycle, Tristan and Isolde, Parsifal, or Lohengrin by Wagner, Elektra by Richard Strauss, Wozzeck by Alban Berg, or Pelleas and Melisande by Debussy, as well as other styles such as Mozart's Da Ponte trilogy or Handel's Rodelinda, and several premieres.
He is an Honorary Director of the "Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España", where he was the principal and artistic director from 2003 to 2012. He also held the same positions with the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada (1993-2003). He was the founder of the Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure, where he was the principal conductor from 1985 to 1997, and the JONC (Jove Orquestra Nacional de Catalunya), of which he is the "Founding Director". In 1992, he was the Executive Musical Director for the ceremonies of the "Barcelona-92" Olympic Games.
Recently, he has been elected Principal and Artistic Director of the "Deutsche Radio Philharmonie" starting from the 2025-26 season.
Josep Pons' discography, with more than 50 CDs and DVDs mostly released by Harmonia Mundi France and Deutsche Grammophon, includes recordings of Falla and French repertoire considered reference interpretations and that have received numerous awards, such as the Prize of the Charles Cross Academy, the Cannes Classical Awards, or the Grammy.
His recording of Nights in the Gardens of Spain with Javier Perianes won a Choc de la Musique, Melancolía with Patricia Petibon received an editor's choice from Gramophone, and his collaboration with Tomatito earned him a Latin Grammy. His recording of Berio's Sinfonia and 10 Frühe Lieder by Mahler/Berio with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Matthias Goerne won the BBC Music Award, Choc de la musique, ECHO Klassik Awards, and the Télérama ffff prize.
His latest releases with Harmonia Mundi include recordings of Granados' opera Goyescas with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin – Alborada del gracioso with the Orchestre de Paris and Javier Perianes.
He has been distinguished, among others, with the "National Music Prize" awarded by the "Ministry of Culture" of the Spanish government for his outstanding work in 20th-century music. In 2019, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and also received the "Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts". He is an Academic Supernumerary of the Royal Catalan Academy of Fine Arts of Saint George.
Throughout his career, Josep Pons has established strong relationships with most of the major European orchestras, having recorded with the Orchestre de Paris and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has made several appearances at the BBC Proms.
Josep Pons began his musical training at the prestigious Escolania de Montserrat. The secular tradition and intensive study of both Polyphony and contemporary music at this institution greatly influenced his subsequent musical and intellectual development.
Reviews
“Josep Pons performs here a kind of symphonic synthesis of the score, addressing the key moments of this human tragedy. He cleverly mixes the purely orchestral passages and those in which the vocal interventions are largely supported by a very active orchestra ... The music direction of Josep Pons ardently emphasizes the work of epic character in a deployment of orchestral dynamics, from the finest pianissimos to the tragic fortissimos.”
Classic Toulouse, January 2016“During the whole concert, Josep Pons is as usual very efficient, the gesture is precise and the orchestra responds perfectly.”
Classique info“Pons began the programme with a vital and warmhearted account of Stravinsky's Scherzo à la Russe, and created an immaculately textured underlay for Frank Peter Zimmermann's lyrically rhapsodic approach to the Brahms Violin Concerto...”
The Guardian“Pons isn’t used to working with the SCO, and Falla isn’t a composer they’ve done very often; but exciting results can come from such circumstances, and so it proved tonight with an exciting, throbbing performance of both works that pulsed with Latin life and gleamed with Mediterranean sunlight.”
Simon Thompson, Seen and Heard International”In this superbly well-played account the smaller-sized BBCSO showed just what a first-class band it is. No little credit in this regard is due to Josep Pons.”
Classical Source“It was clear that Josep Pons had his own, often very creative, ideas.”
Alan Saunders, Classical SourceParsifal en el Teatre del Liceu "Visión transparente, meticulosa y clarificadora del fondo inagotable de la partitura"
Beckmesser, redactormf"[...] the idiomatic baton of Spanish maestro Josep Pons conjured an air of authenticity. His opening gambit, the brooding Interlude and sizzling Dance from Manuel de Falla's unfairly neglected opera La vida breve, displayed an instinct for subtle grace and building dramatic tension"
Clive Paget, July 2023"Josep Pons duly brought out the drama of [De Falla's La vida breve's] inicial pages, before heading into a rendition of the main section such as (rightly) predicated suavity over rhetoric, while not lacking for impetus as this music reached its effervescent close"
Richard Whitehouse, July 2023
