The Dutch conductor Jaap van Zweden has in recent years formed a strong musical relationship with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, and the result of this is an ongoing series of recordings for Octavia of Anton Bruckner’s symphonies. On this new hybrid SACD they perform three works by Igor Stravinsky, the ballet suites from “Petrushka” and “Pulcinella”, and the “Symphonies of Wind Instruments”.
Stravinsky’s Petrushka was the second of his three great “Russian” ballets following The Firebird and before The Rite of Spring. It was first performed in Paris in 1911 by Diaghilev’s Ballet Russe. “Pulcinella” and the “Symphonies of Wind Instruments” were written during Stravinsky’s neo-classical period. Some of the score of the former is adapted from the music of the early eighteenth century Italian composer Giovanni Pergolesi.
Born in Amsterdam in 1960, Jaap van Zweden began his musical career as a violinist, becoming at nineteen the youngest ever concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He is now Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Radio Kamer Filharmonie, Music Director of Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and Chief Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra. He is currently recording a Bruckner cycle for Octavia, with symphonies 4, 5, 7, 9 and 2 already released to great critical acclaim.
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
