Conductor Jaap van Zweden leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in three performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Friday and Saturday, April 29 and 30, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, May 1, at 2 p.m. The program features the LA Phil's first performances of Rudolf Escher's Musique pour l'esprit en deuil. Also on the program is Sergei Prokofiev's Sinfonia concertante, the composer's large-scale work for cello and orchestra, performed by LA Phil Principal Cellist Peter Stumpf. According to renowned cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, who premiered the work, "Shostakovich thought that the Sinfonia concertante was Prokofiev's most brilliant work." The program closes with Ludwig van Beethoven's well-known Symphony No. 5.
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 19 became the youngest concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.Peter Stumpf became the Principal Cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the beginning of the 2002/03 season. A dedicated chamber music musician, he is a member of the Johannes String Quartet which has collaborated recently with the Guarneri Quartet on a tour including commissions from composers William Bolcom and Esa-Pekka Salonen.Complete Program:ESCHER Musique pour l'esprit en deuilVideos