Jaap van Zweden - A Maestro on World Tour

Busy times for maestro Van Zweden. With the Hong Kong Philharmonic, a concert with world famous pianist Lang lang is scheduled. Meanwhile in Amsterdam, the maestro’s wife Aaltje van Zweden accompanies their autistic son Benjamin to a performance with his choir: an ensemble that consists entirly of people with autism. After the Lang Lang concert, Jaap van Zweden heads for Chicago, for a Beethoven Fifth performance with the Chicago Symphony, as a guest conductor. He returns to Hong Kong for one of the largest and most complex musical projects of his year: Das Rheingold, the first part of Wagner’s Ring Cycle will be performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Bariton Matthias Goerne, amongst others, is a soloist. It’s an extremely demanding piece, especially since the young orchestra lacks experience with Wagner opera’s. Jaap van Zweden has to pull out all the stops to get the orchestra on the level he demands. Furthermore, Van Zweden speaks about the tough schedule he is on, and the fact he has to miss out many important family moments. It is the price one has to pay for a succesful international career in music.