Paul Daniel: a decade of listening

Paul Daniel © RFG

Prelude

Paul Daniel is widely regarded as one of the most distinctive British conductors of his generation. His career has moved with ease between opera houses, symphony orchestras and recording studios, combining a deep engagement with the central repertoire with a curiosity for works that invite rediscovery.

His work has been widely recognised, from the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (1998) and a Gramophone Award (1999), to conducting the Last Night of the Proms in 2005 and being appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2000. Alongside his years as Music Director of English National Opera, he has also led orchestras such as the West Australian Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine.

His relationship with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia began in 2007 as Principal Guest Conductor, and from 2013 as Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser. What followed was a decade that reshaped not only the orchestra’s artistic direction, but the way it connected with its city and its audiences.

Every story has a beginning. 

Paul Daniel: It all began in 2005 - I had known Antoni Ros-Marbá and greatly admired his work since we had invited him to my orchestra in England way back in the 90s, and I was very excited to be invited to his orchestra in Santiago. 
It was just as I expected from his style - a group of musicians trained with great care, and meticulous attention to ensemble and an organic sound that came from deep within. 
I think my first concert was probably quite disrespectful to his aesthetic - my Beethoven was probably quite the opposite! I hope he forgives me. 
He invited me to become a principal guest conductor, so perhaps our work could exist side by side. 
The fact that this very lively group could adapt and play in very different ways for the many conductors who came was thanks to the huge skill he had taught and built in a very short time - many great orchestras take generations to arrive at that security, and Ros had laid very strong foundations for listening and adapting.

Resonance — there was already something there, waiting.

PD: When I arrived, my job was to listen — to the heartbeat of the orchestra, the city, and the wider community in Galicia. As musicians, we are nothing without our public.
I found a very strong hunger to reach out, to go further: with repertoire, and with our public. 
The first interview I made, I was quoted a lot with my feeling that the RFG was like a very fine treasure, but maybe too hidden, too protected.
I have a very strong social gene in my musical identity, and I could see that the orchestra was ready to make contact with more and different audiences, and expand its repertoire.
I am by nature quite impatient - it’s a trait that annoys people, I know, but sometimes it can bring good energy. 
The RFG was already a fantastic force with huge potential energy, and I could imagine so many ways we could advance!

From Vision to Action

PD: I restricted myself to one new initiative per season: with the great support of Oriol Roch, who did the real 'heavy lifting', we established our Quintana concerts every single year (I wanted to show off the orchestra every single summer!). 
We developed a major regular season in Vigo - my mantra was that every concert we gave should be heard by double the audience.
After Oriol Roch's time, we were left without a permanent “director técnico” for many years, but I have to say, they were years when we achieved huge progress. I was supported by temporary directors, and others working behind the scenes, and we pushed very hard to expand and diversify our work, so that (we hoped) we would expand and diversify our public.
And so, new series of 'barrios' concerts to begin every season in the districts of the city: we will come to you, you don’t need to come to the Auditorio; a development of the education concerts, which I felt I should play a central role in - giving young people a big chance to hear and understand BIG repertoire. I’ll never forget the thrill of an Auditorio full of young people really beginning to hear and understand the world of Mahler's 6th symphony for the first time in their lives.
And then, another new series, which we called “Descubre unha orquestra para ti, a túa!”- I wanted to create an atmosphere where the audience came first, where we were responding to them rather than the other way round. The RFG is their orchestra, after all! We welcomed parents and children to sit within the orchestra, on stage with us many times: not for token moments, but to listen and feel the sensations of their orchestra playing the same repertoire as the subscription concerts. I think we built some important bridges, and, I hope, changed a few lives!
With essential support from Sabela García Fonte, our new “directora técnica”, we also began to include support for local associations and NGOs. It was a win-win - our music and our stage gave great visibility and support to their fantastic work for the communities of Galicia: and we were able to donate the gift of our music. We all made important new friends, for sure.

Artistic Collaborations

PD: As for the performers, a few things to be proud of: we were the strongest promoters of women conductors in Spanish orchestras for several seasons at the beginning of that very welcome new 'tide' (among so many I invited, Jessica Cottis, Delyana Lazarova, Eun Sun Kim…). 
We welcomed principal guest conductors (always the choice of the players) who brought extra intensity to our work (in particular, the very exciting seasons with Joana Carneiro). 
We welcomed as many international soloists as we could manage to have; the appearance of the orchestra in as many contexts as possible: in the park with Cristina Pato and her new gaita concerto, in Santander with Pacho Flores, or with artists such as the wonderful Lars Vogt or Nicolas Angelich.
Among them, internationally recognised soloists such as Steven Osborne, Nicolas Altstaedt or Steven Isserlis, alongside artists like Fazıl Say, whose presence also brought a strong contemporary voice to the orchestra.

PD: Yes, and, at the top of those lists, solo appearances by our own musicians - I tried to programme one or two concerts each season to show off our home grown talent. Barbara Switalska giving an extraordinary and brilliant Spanish premiere of a work for cello, orchestra and film by Michael van de Aa, Grisha (Gregori Nedobora) playing new arrangements I made for him of Quiroga at the Cidade de Cultura, James Dahlgren giving us his elite virtuoso playing in Rimsky Korsakov Scheherazade, Esther Viudez playing the thrilling Spanish premiere of James Macmillan's The World's Ransoming - these are a small portion of the world beating performances from our own soloists.

A vision that also embraced new music and the voices of Galician composers.

PD: We have also been so lucky to have such a rich vein of new composers' work - adding several short 'bonus' works to larger programmes, extra 'planets' by Galician composers to the Planets of Holst, making new CD recordings of Octavio Vázquez, Fernando Buide, Juan Durán, Eduardo Soutullo, and the Tránsitos commission with Abé Rabade. 
The two operas of our dear friend Fernando Buide grew out of a long collaboration, starting with small works, getting to know each other as musicians, moving carefully into the productions that grew naturally but with such energy and style. His two new operas, with major Spanish singers (Raquel Lojendio, María Hinojosa…) and sold out audiences - that is proper testament to taking your public along with you.

Always searching for new paths.

PD. Those less 'traditional' artistic collaborations - I am sure we annoyed a few audiences with our major performances with Abé, with Uxía, or the project that took more years to confirm than any other in my experience, the wonderful Jacobeo Quintana project with Luz Casal! But in every case, I hope that we were building new traditions to add to the old ones…
I remember well that with the new work we created with the jazz trio Sumrrá, we felt very much that Sumrrá had become members of the RFG for a week, and also that we, the RFG, had become members of their trio!
There’s one very important aspect to all this expansion, and diversity, and risk-taking. Every step of the way in the development of these projects, I know very well, my job is to listen, to try to resonate with the musicians, and with the public. Most of the best ideas, really, have come from musicians in the orchestra, or a meeting in a bar with a member of our dear public, or a word in my ear from the city’s administration.

But there was more.

PD: One particular very special project - the Sensogenoma series of concerts - actually began with a small group of our players, mostly from the orchestra, on a voluntary basis. Their pilot work unlocked a door, the orchestra joined in, again with the vital work of our directora técnica, and so began the annual concerts which have made such great progress for health and science in the wider community.
My job in exploring all these rich veins of work and invention is so often just to focus the energy and grab the opportunity. 
It’s entirely thanks to the help and generosity of friends that the great Luis Tosar became a member of our orchestra for one week to recite Shakespeare while we played Shostakovich. Or forging a new link with Festival Maré, arranging music for RFG and the Trio da Kali from Mali in a world first? Why not! Really, I am only a detective and a stalker - with a gene that says 'we can do it!'
Much of what we achieved would be impossible without the enormous generosity of the musicians to give their time and complicity to the projects, as well as their great playing.

Coda 

And so, dear reader, three years ago, Paul Daniel’s chapter as Principal Conductor of the RFG came to an end…

But then, unexpectedly, he returned. On March 28th, 2026, during the orchestra’s anniversary concert, Paul Daniel appeared once again — stepping onto the podium without rehearsal. For those of us on stage, it was more than a surprise. It was a moment of recognition, of memory, of something still alive.

The response was immediate — an ovation that belonged as much on stage as to the hall.

As a musician of the RFG, there is something I cannot leave unsaid.The way Paul Daniel speaks about the orchestra — about the players and himself as part of the same body — and about the public, is rare.
A quiet humility that remains.

PD: I think we managed quite a lot in those ten years! But as I always try to remember, an orchestra and the community that supports it needs very careful, gentle development. If one muscle in the political, social, musical body that we all belong to is stretched or pushed too hard, it will contract suddenly and damage the whole balance. 
We musicians, we have a sort of magic power, to pluck music out of the air around us and channel it in ways that can heal, excite, calm, make emotional sense of the world. But all that can only happen if we are completely in tune with the world. I know that I have sometimes been out of tune with that world, but I know that the musicians of the RFG, your orchestra, will always keep faith with the world they are so lucky to serve.

Paul Daniel returns to the Real Filharmonía de Galicia

Upcoming concerts — “Mares de Historias”
Wednesday, April 22nd at 20.00, at Centro Cultural Afundación de Vigo
Thursday, April 23rd at 20.30, at the Auditorio de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela.