Bruckner: 'Scherzo'.Molto Vivace. from Symphony No. 5

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Orchestra: Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Label: Exton
Cat. No.: OVCL-00305

“A pure musician, van Zweden does not require hype or engage in theatrical gestures on or off the podium. […] his skills and rapport with the Bruckner-steeped Chicago Symphony were such that the 80-minute symphony [no. 5] was clearly etched, balanced and gripping from beginning to end. On the strength of this remarkable debut, I would go to hear Van Zweden conduct anything, anywhere.”

Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun Times, October 2008

Jaap van Zweden was born in 1960 in Amsterdam and began his musical life as a violinist before moving from stage to podium. He is presently Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Radio Kamer Filharmonie, and Chief Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra.

He began his violin studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory and at nineteen became the youngest concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. As soloist and concertmaster, he performed under such conductors as Haitink, Dorati, Kondrashin, Bernstein, Giulini, Solti and Chailly before embarking on his conducting career in 1995. From 1996 to 2000, he held the position of Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra with whom he undertook a major tour to the USA and made his debut at Carnegie Hall. From 2000 to 2005, he was Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orchestra of The Hague with whom he toured in Europe, Japan and South America, where he remains an honorary Guest Conductor.

Jaap van Zweden has worked with many prestigious orchestras across the globe, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Orchestre National de France, Munich Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Aside from an extensive symphonic repertoire, opera also plays an important part in his career, and he has conducted La Traviata and Fidelio with the National Reisopera, Madama Butterfly at the Netherlands Opera, and concert performances of Verdi’s Otello, Barber’s Vanessa and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger and Lohengrin at the Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, of the latter of which Het Parool wrote “this was the first Wagner opera which van Zweden has conducted, and it already sounds as if he has spent dozens of years as a guest conductor at the Bayreuth Festival.”

Recent highlights have included highly acclaimed debuts with the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and a tour of major European capitals and a Beethoven symphony cycle with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Highlights of the 2010/11 season and beyond will include his debuts with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, St Louis Symphony and the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich. He makes return visits to the Philadelphia, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, Hong Kong Philharmonic and London Philharmonic Orchestras, and with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic he will conduct a concert performance of Parsifal at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and make his debut at the BBC Proms.

Jaap van Zweden has recorded the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Residentie Orchestra, and the Brahms symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, with whom he is currently recording a Bruckner cycle for Octavia Records, with symphonies 2, 4, 5, 7 and 9 already released to great critical acclaim. With the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s own record label he has recorded Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, and his recording of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 with the Royal Flemish Philharmonic was released in Autumn 2008. For the Dallas Symphony’s own record label he has released the symphonies of Tchaikovsky (No. 5) and Beethoven (5 and 7). In August 2010 he will record Mozart Piano Concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and David Fray.

Season 2010/2011

Date Last Edited: 10th August 2010