Jaap van Zweden conducts Beethoven

How better to celebrate Jaap van Zweden’s return than with Beethoven’s Seventh? The composer’s newly-found zest for life is palpable in this popular milestone in the symphonic repertoire, which explains its nickname ‘the apotheosis of dance’. Nonetheless the festive mood conceals a darker side: the sombre second movement reveals Beethoven’s struggle after realising that he was becoming profoundly deaf. Schubert followed in Beethoven’s footsteps, linking music with personal reflection, going on to become the most poetic composer ever until Richard Strauss burst onto the scene. Both composers left us a sizeable oeuvre of moving lieder full of emotional subtleties, which have been orchestrated for the bright, bronze ring of Matthias Goerne’s baritone and directed by our Conductor Emeritus Jaap Van Zweden.