Faces to Watch in 2010: Music

Jaap Van Zweden, Music Director of the Dallas Symphony

A couple of years ago, when the Dallas Symphony announced the appointment of Jaap van Zweden as its next music director, heads scratched in Texas at an unfamiliar Dutch name. Now in his second season, heads are scratching around the U.S. What took us so long? Finally, Van Zweden makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut on April 4 in Walt Disney Concert Hall.

The program is conventional — Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto and Brahms Fourth Symphony — and it needn’t be. One of Van Zweden’s first concerts as music director in Dallas was the premiere of an evening-long concert drama about the civil rights movement, “August 4, 1964,” by then-L.A. Phil consulting composer Steven Stucky. Still, from the evidence of Van Zweden’s two CDs of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky symphonies recorded live in Dallas during his first season, the 50-year-old Dutch maestro (who is also a Juilliard-trained violinist and former concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra) knows how to generate tense, tactile excitement in all kinds of music.

Alexandra du Bois, Composer

At 28, Alexandra du Bois, a composer from Virginia, has had two commissions from the Kronos Quartet and has written for and performed with the Beaux Arts Trio. She’s caught the attention of Philip Glass, Terry Riley, Osvaldo Golijov and Christopher Rouse. But this winter and spring she finds herself in stranger company. Southwest Chamber Music has selected her as the American composer most featured in its “Ascending Dragon Music Festival,” a cultural exchange with Vietnam.

Several of Du Bois’ recent chamber pieces, along with a world premiere, will be performed in the company of work by Vietnamese composers as part of the series, which will be given at the Armory in Pasadena and the Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles. She also travels with the ensemble in March for a residency in Hanoi and Ho Chi Min City.

The JACK Quartet, String Quartet

You don’t know JACK? Then you’ve missed one of 2009’s most impressive recordings — that of a muscular, young New York-based string quartet playing the physically demanding, mathematically multifarious and otherworldly string quartets of Iannis Xenakis. Mode has released it both as a CD and a DVD. The DVD, with its great surround sound, is the way to go, especially since you can see the black T-shirted guys in startling action, unlike when they make their Los Angeles debut April 19 and 20 at Neighborhood Church in Pasadena.
As part of Monday Evening Concerts, JACK will perform Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas’ evening-long microtonal quartet “In the Dark” as written. In the dark.

— Mark Swed

More Faces:

Faces to Watch in 2010: Architecture

Faces to Watch in 2010: Theater

Photo credits from top: Bert Hulselmans, Nick Ruechel and Justin Bernhaut

Comments

[Dawson Weber]

I think it might be worth considering David Robertson for this list.
I still believe had he not recently signed with St. Louis Symphony he could have been a serious contender for music director openings in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. In California, his Ojai Festival was fantastic as well as his Concrete Frequency series with Los Angeles Philharmonic. Also of note was his last minute save at Carnegie Hall with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra praised by the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/arts/music/06symp.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=david+robertson+frankenstein&st=nyt

I look forward to seeing him at Disney Hall in April with St. Louis Symphony.

[Amie]

I love The JACK Quartet! Avant Gaurde, fiercely emotional, brilliant! Will watch for them in 2010!

[Webmaster -- Fullerton Friends of Music]

A recent blog posted by Mr. Swed discussed the merits of Simon Rattle's Brahms recorded cycle recently released by EMI this past fall.

I consider Jaap Van Zweden's quicker paced recorded cycle of the Brahms Symphonies with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra a better cycle to Rattle's in terms of exuding great energy while maintaining a truer adherance to Brahms' scores for the symphonies in terms of tempos and musical phrasing. Van Zweden's restraint in interpretive license yields impressive results following the style some of the other acclaimed Dutch maestros such as Bernard Haitink and Edo de Waart.

A remarkable recorded achievement on Brilliant Classics when one considers the disparity of resources for Van Zweden and Rattle. Commited performances from the two Dutch orchestras.

His upcoming LAPO guest appearance was my first choice for additional concert tickets at Disney Hall; looking forward to his conducting visit and his direction of the Brahms 4th here in April.