Interview with Jaap van Zweden

2017年11月17日

Music Today: You have worked with BMF more than once, can you tell us a little bit about your experiences with the festival? How do you think of BMF?

This is the second time I work with BMF. I think in its 20 years of existence it has become a very important festival. Although it’s a young festival, it doesn’t feel like it. It has become a mature and internationally respected festival in a very short time. It’s always a critical situation to start a festival like this—you need to know who to ask. The fantastic director Long Yu gets wonderful orchestras, wonderful soloists and wonderful conductors, and he is a great host. I think Long You has done an incredible job, and Beijing and China should be proud of him and what he’s pulling off. Now that the festival has established itself, it’s an honor for ensembles to get the invitation to come here, being surrounded by fantastic audiences, a great city and other wonderful artists.

Music Today: Is there a reason why you brought programs of Wagner and Bruckner to the Beijing Music Festival this year?

Well, first of all programs are decided by a lot of people. This was a big wish of BMF and the Salzburg Easter Festival because they had collaborations before. This time when they made this wonderful retake of the Karajan version, they wanted to bring it here. We were lucky enough to come here, not just play it and go, but stay here and really rehearse. Some singers are from Salzburg could not make it so we have some new singers. It took some time for them to know how to move on stage and for me to get to know them. We were in a very tight time schedule, but gladly it worked.

As for Bruckner, this is the first time I’m going to perform Bruckner in China. Bruckner is a very religious person. He’s always composing on an organ in a church. He’s not so much a composer about emotion, but more of beauty. For instance if we compare Mahler to Bruckner, Mahler is a roller coaster of emotions, like what happens in his life with us, while Bruckner likes to make his step up to touch the light, or heaven maybe. I think the music of Bruckner is about beauty without ego and he is very close to heaven. So as a listener, you have to sort of meditate, and observe his music as a spiritual experience.

Music Today: You have conducted a concert version of Die Walküre with HKPO, and what does it feel like to work with an entire opera production? How do you think of the production from Salzburg Easter Festival?

Yes, we also had an album of it. I think it’s fascinating that something 50 years old is still very up to date. There were just some photos and sketches of the movements left from 50 years ago instead of videos. The stage is of course from that time, the movement of the actors are in the world from Karajan, but they don’t know if that is really the case because they didn’t see it. Although it was a big spectacle 50 years ago, now we have a lot more technical possibilities, so they reinvented about 80% of the production with Karajan’s spirit in it. So it is a combination of the world today and 50 years ago, and it feels to me very update, fresh and new. You see, whenever something is very good, it can stay for a very long time. That’s classic. But I think the real spectacle is the music. I understand that we listen with eyes, but the music should still be the core.


Music Today: What brought you and HKPO together? What do you feel about working with them?

Our collaboration started 5 years ago. Before that, I knew about this orchestra, and I heard about how wonderful they could play, sometimes (laughters). I think that orchestra has the ability to become one of the world’s best orchestras. Actually they are proving week after week that they are willing and eager to get to that level.

Music Today: You work with Feng Ning and Yuja Wang regularly. How do you like to work with Chinese musicians?

Well I work with the Hong Kong Philharmonic so, you know, there are a lot of Chinese (laughters). I have to be very honest to you: I don’t see differences. If there’s something you can sense from them, it’s that they’re extremely disciplined, and very eager to absorb what we want to reach. If you look at my new orchestra—the New York Philharmonic—so many Asian people! And there are also many people from Australia and the rest of the world. All of us speak an international language, and what binds us together is this international speech of music. To make music together it is a wonderful thing.

Music Today: We heard that you will visit NCPA with NYPO next March. It’s been 10 years since the last time NYPO came to Beijing. Are you excited about the tour, and do you have any expectation for this concert?

I’m always excited, but particularly excited that we’re here now. I did not know that New York Philharmonic hasn’t been to Beijing for 10 years, but I think it’s always a wonderful thing that we can show how fantastic the orchestra is at this moment.

Music Today: What do you think is special about NYPO compared to the orchestras you used to work with, especially Dallas Symphony and HKPO?

I see an orchestra as something with its own soul. I don’t compare souls, so I don’t compare orchestras. I like to honer them the way they are; they’re there, I’m here, we meet in the middle, and then we can start talking about a relationship. For instance, what is great about NYPO is their tradition of 175 years, being very exciting on the podium, outgoing, and has an incredible potential. But you cannot say that New York has this and Hong Kong doesn’t. HKPO is different, but still has this fantastic quality. New York Philharmonic with a history of 175 years old is an orchestra which had so many incredible maestros with them, such as Toscanini, Mahler, Bernstein. Actually Bernstein was actually the one who made me conduct for the first time. When I was a young boy I was at the Juilliard school. I studied there from 1977 to 1980, for three years. So every year or every other week I would go to the New York Philharmonic, listen to them, learn from them, and especially watch Bernstein and Zubin Mehta at that time. So the difference between NY and HK is that I didn’t have this connection with Hong Kong Philharmonic. But of course, now I do.


Music Today: Do you personally prefer traditional classical or contemporary classical music? In your opinion, what is the most important factor that has caused the inaccessibility of today’s contemporary music, and what should we do, as musicians, to promote the music that relates to our own era?

I think in order to keep our history alive, we should invest in new music. For me as a conductor but also as a musician in the orchestra, I think it’s wonderful to work with a living composer, because I wish I could talk for 5 minutes with Beethoven and ask him, “What do you want with your No.9 Symphony or your opera Fidelio?” A month ago I did a piece by Philip Glass while he was in the hall. I had a wonderful conversation with him. So the great thing is that when you have living composers around you writing very inspiring music, you can ask them everything you want. I think that’s a luxury you don’t have with any composers who are not alive anymore.

So that’s a great for us as musicians. But it’s also very important that the classical music scene should be fed with new music as much as it can. People in the hall are dying for having great new music, and we as musicians also love to have new music as much as we can. So who’s music are we going to choose? In Netherland, for instance, we have 20 most important living composers. At this moment I’m actually the ambassador for the Contemporary Music in Netherland for 5 years, so I promote all those composers. I think every conductor should promote a lot of composers. For instance our artistic director Fung Lam at Hong Kong Philharmonic is also a composer. In fact, I got to know him because I played his pieces. And he’s now again making a new piece for me and the orchestra.

Music Today: You have mentioned that you’ll try to promote emerging Dutch composers. Are you already working on some projects or performances?

For my first season in New York Philharmonic, I’m going to bring three new Dutch composers and also three composers from New York who are quite fresh and new in the New York scene. And we will then also do pieces by more established composers like David Lang. But I cannot tell you too many details because in February my first season at New York Philharmonic will be announced. But I can tell you people will be surprised how much new music we will do.