Amongst the many recordings made by the internationally renowned conductor Jaap van Zweden have been highly successful cycles of the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms. He is currently working on a series of Hybrid SACDs with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic for Octavia and Challenge Classics featuring the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, and recordings of Nos. 2, 4, 5, 7 8 and 9 have already been released to great critical acclaim.
This disc features the Third Symphony in D minor, which was dedicated to Richard Wagner. Amsterdam-born Jaap van Zweden has risen rapidly in little more than a decade to become one of today’s most sought-after conductors. He has been Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2008, and is also Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Radio Chamber Philharmonic (having been Chief Conductor from 2005-2011). Appointed at 19 as the youngest concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, he began his conducting career in 1995 and held the positions of Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra between 1996 and 2000, Chief Conductor of The Hague Philharmonic from 2000 to 2005, and Chief Conductor of the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Orchestra (2008-2011). His recent releases for Challenge Classics have included a live recording with the Netherlands RPO of Britten’s War Requiem (CC72388), and a concert performance of Wagner’s Parsifal (CC72519) which has just won the Edison Award.
Anton Bruckner wrote his Symphony No. 3 in D minor in 1873 but revised it twice, first in 1877 and again in 1891. In fact there exist no less than six different versions, with three of them (1873, 1880 and 1889) widely performed today. The version used in this performance is the Novak edition from 1891.
