07-07-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Jaap van Zweden returns for Hong Kong Philharmonic concert featuring Augustin Hadelich
In the rarefied world of orchestral performance, few debates are as enduring or as divisive as the question of leadership. Does transcendent artistry emerge from the iron will of a single visionary, or through the alchemy of collective insight?
This question has resurfaced with fresh urgency in light of a recent documentary examining the methods of Jaap van Zweden, a Dutch conductor and former music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra whose exacting, often fiery rehearsals defined his uncompromising approach to interpretation.
The orchestra's season-closing concert on July 4 marked his return as conductor emeritus for the first time since the film, and became an unintentional masterclass in this very tension.
It was intensified by the fact that van Zweden will be succeeded by the
25-year-old Finnish phenomenon Tarmo Peltokoski , a rising star who champions dialogue and collective input.
Jaap van Zweden conducts the Hong Kong Philharmonic in Hong Kong on July 4, 2025. Photo: Desmond Chan/HK Phil
That dichotomy hung in the air as the evening opened with Wagner's 'Tannhäuser Overture' – a work whose central conflict between sacred discipline and profane abandon felt almost metatextual.
