Nieuws
"Consistently excellent playing"
The Times, Neil Fisher - donderdag 1 september 2011
"You could have heard a pin drop in SW7 as Jaap van Zweden led the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra through a movement that its anguished composer rather unhelpfully marked "solemn and slow, but not dragging".
Van Zweden's Bruckner certainly didn't drag, but it also avoided undue solemnity. Shaving a good 15 minutes off the expected 85-minute duration, the Dutchman produced a brilliantly sculpted reading, lithe and expressive when the composer's symphonic juggernauts can tend to the monolithic. Arranging his orchestra in an unusual deployment - brass clustered together, almost as if this was an 18th-century consort band rather than a sonic behemoth with eight horns and four Wagner tubas - was a telling and cleverly effective innovation.
True, the NRPO doesn't have the luscious string sound of their famous neighbours at the Concertgebouw, but the woodwind, and, especially, the brass, produced consistently excellent playing; rightly, the first instrumentalist singled out by van Zweden for particular acclaim was the superb principal horn, Petra Botma (foto). The orchestra and conductor are currently midway through a Bruckner symphony cycle on a minnow label, Exton. The omens look more than a little auspicious.
Some fine Mozart preceded the Bruckner, allowing a much thinner NRPO to show that small can be beautiful, too."
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"Good news for those with a train to catch"
The Telegraph (Hugo Shirley) - woensdag 31 augustus 2011
"Jaap van Zweden, bringing his Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra to the Proms for the first time, is not your typical Bruckner conductor . For a start, he has taken Bruckner’s “nicht schleppend” (“not dragging”) markings to heart. For there was certainly no schlepping in this Eighth, remarkable for a fleet-footed athleticism in the first two movements and a clear, driving sense of purpose in the whopping adagio and finale.
It was good news for those with a train to catch, as the conductor shaved 10 minutes off the projected running time. But was it good news for Bruckner? In the urgent, exciting account of the opening allegro moderato, it clearly was, with van Zweden’s structural control creating a cohesiveness that the music by no means guarantees. The orchestra’s lean, punchy sound seemed ideal for this approach, too, both here and in an unusually hair-raising scherzo. The adagio was beautifully shaped, lovingly controlled, impeccably musical." (4 stars)
En The Indepedent (Michael Church):
"Van Zweden and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic gave Bruckner’s opening movement an aura of mystery, as the two main themes declared themselves before modulating to remote realms. Tightly constructed in a classical manner, the movement gradually moved from darkness to light, while the Scherzo which followed wove a thickening web. If the Adagio attained a beyond-the-grave monumentality through its intricate string textures and chorale-like sub-theme, the oft-repeated descending scale in the finale became a kaleidoscope of textures and colours. Bruckner’s brass is just as busy as Mahler’s, but its moments of cloying Mahlerian fruitiness are short-lived: in Bruckner’s rinsed-clean sound-world, craftsmanship overrides sensuality, as this excellent band showed." (5 stars)
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"By any standards a superb ensemble"
The Guardian, Andrew Clements - woensdag 31 augustus 2011
"It is no disgrace to be the second-best orchestra in a country that also has the Royal Concertgebouw; yet the future of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic was very much in doubt last year, after the Dutch government announced swingeing cuts to its arts budget. It would have been one of three orchestras to disappear, had the Netherlands Music Centre closed down as proposed. But the outcry from the musical world prompted at least a partial rethink and now, it seems, the centre and at least some of its performing groups will survive, though with greatly reduced funding.
The NRPO's debut at the Proms, under its current chief conductor Jaap van Zweden, showed what could so easily have been lost altogether, with Bruckner's Eighth Symphony. By any standards this is a superb ensemble, with woodwind and brass that would grace any orchestra in the world, together with strings of wonderful flexibility and depth. Van Zweden's Bruckner is not monumental so much as yearningly expressive; its great paragraphs are not hewn from granite but carefully moulded to fit, and powered with an extraordinary dramatic energy. It was swift, too: 75 minutes is very much on the short side for performances of the Eighth, but nothing seemed rushed or hastily considered – just guided on an utterly sure path from first note to last."
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En uit de recensie op www.bachtrack.com: "What one noticed immediately was the stunning beauty of the orchestral playing of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, especially the string tone: this was incomparably rich, dark-hued, full of texture and power - something which was to come into its own to glorious effect in the Bruckner."
www.classicalsource.com: "Jaap van Zweden delivered layers and broadness to spare in his thrilling performance of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony (in Leopold Nowak’s edition of this much tinkered-with score), a work served very well by the Proms over the. As leader of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Van Zweden would have played in umpteen performances of this masterpiece, and this must have contributed to the authority and long-distance cogency that made this particular performance so special. As his series of Bruckner recordings is confirming, Van Zweden has an instinct for the way in which Bruckner’s music connects and grows..."
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"Radio Filharmonisch Orkest kan mee met de internationale top"
Het Parool, Roeland Hazendonk - maandag 29 augustus 2011
“In Londen gaan het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest en zijn chef indruk maken. Bruckners Achtste kreeg een geweldige uitvoering. Van Zweden geeft Bruckners monumentale kolos een opmerkelijk dramatische lading en spint grootse lange lijnen in de weidse klanklandschappen die Bruckner in deze symfonie meer dan in de andere acht als een doorgaand geheel wist uit te serveren.
Vooral het eerste deel is in Van Zwedens visie een heftig geladen verhaal, dat in de ferm aangezette strijkerspartijen soms bijna Mahleriaanse dramatiek kreeg en trefzeker opgebouwd in een duister geladen wegsterven eindigde dat treffend Bruckners eigen omschrijving van dat slot raakte – doodsklokken.
Bijzonder is hoe in deze interpretatie strakke, perfect gedoseerde, heldere architectuur in geluid samengaat met een emotionele lading die oprecht ouderwets romantisch doorleefd is. (…) Ook heel bijzonder is dat het geen moment in pathos of vals sentiment uitmondt. Het is allemaal enorm direct en zelden hoor je Bruckner zo opwindend en zo goed op tempo gespeeld. (…) Het Radio Filharmonisch Orkest was in topvorm en kan in die staat mee met de internationale top.”
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"Van Zweden imponeert met orgelende Bruckner"
NRC Handelsblad, Floris Don - maandag 29 augustus 2011
"Met Bruckners Achtste symfonie wist hij met het Radio Filharmonisch vrijdag in het Concertgebouw te imponeren. Houtinstrumenten opereerden als veelkleurig orgeltje, violen schakelden soepel tussen een vorstelijke en schichtige klank, het kwartet Wagnertuba’s was onfeilbaar.
Van Zweden stond daarbij een Wagneriaanse Bruckner voor ogen, vol van verlangen en wilde kopercharges. Het tempo viel soms al te gretig voorover, maar in het Adagio benaderde Van Zweden de zinderende climax met engelengeduld – niet gehinderd door de zachte beats die doordrongen vanaf de Uitmarkt."
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