Maestro Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra to Join the Beijing Music Festival

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) under the baton of its Music Director Jaap van Zweden will be joining the 20th Beijing Music Festival in October for two stunning programmes; "Sounding Cathedral Architecture", featuring Bruckner's majestic Eighth Symphony, and "A Timeless Karajan Version of Wagner" restoring Herbert von Karajan's Salzburg Easter Festival version of Die Walküre.

2017 marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the HKSAR, also the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Music Festival and the 50th anniversary of the Salzburg Easter Festival. With their return to the Beijing Music Festival after their successful collaboration last year, the HK Phil and Music Director Jaap van Zweden celebrate all three anniversaries.

Legendary conductor Herbert von Karajan founded the Salzburg Easter Festival in 1967, and in his very first festival conducted and directed his own staging of Wagner's Die Walküre. In this upcoming Beijing visit, the HK Phil and Jaap van Zweden will be working with world-class Wagner singers and a production crew from Beijing and Salzburg to restore this historic staged performance.

The HK Phil's previous instalment of Wagner's Ring Cycle Part II - Die Walküre with Maestro Jaap van Zweden, was a huge success with universal critical acclaim from around the Globe. The Gramophone (U.K.) recognised the performance as "A Ring from Hong Kong to take on the world", while Der Neue Merker (Vienna) declared that the HK Phil's Die Walküre "Merited the highest praise for nearly all concerned". The HK Phil's two performances of this extravagant opera in Beijing's Poly Theatre on 24 & 27 October will definitely be a major undertaking in China's operatic scene.

The HK Phil will also be performing Bruckner's Eighth Symphony with Maestro van Zweden in the "Sounding Cathedral Architecture" programme on 28 October. Maestro van Zweden "is now the leading interpreter of Bruckner's symphonies", according to the BBC Music Magazine, and audiences from Beijing will soon be able to experience at first hand the Maestro's authoritative interpretation of Bruckner's glorious, magisterial and intensely beautiful Eighth.

Maestro van Zweden has toured to Mainland China twice with the HK Phil, and both visits have earned high acclaim from critics and audiences alike. This collaboration with the Beijing Music Festival is definitely a must-see for Chinese audiences!

Artists

Jaap van Zweden, conductor

Over the last decade, conductor Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents. The 17/18 season marks a major milestone as he completes his ten-year tenure as Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and simultaneously is Music Director Designate in New York, anticipating his inaugural season (2018/19) as the 26th Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. He continues as Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a post he has held since 2012. Born in Amsterdam, Jaap van Zweden was the youngest ever Concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He began his conducting career in 1995, and in 2012 was named Musical America's Conductor of the Year.

Photo Credit: Cheung Chi Wai

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