Amsterdammer Jaap van Zweden (62) was the youngest concertmaster of all time at the Concertgebouw Orchestra. He became a conductor more than 25 years ago; he flew out to the United States and Asia. The tentative end point is the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, where he will start in January. Now there is his biography: That’s Jaap, written by journalist Peter van Ingen.
Frederike Berntsen9 November 2023, 20:00
“A biography like that makes me feel a bit awkward,” says Jaap van Zweden. “You usually do something like that at the end of your career, and I’m not at the very end yet. But, I’m not at the beginning either, there was a lot to tell about my violin career and conducting.”
“When you start conducting, you are going to climb a mega mountain. The closer you get to the top, the clearer it becomes. At the bottom of the mountain the course is incalculable. Hand technique is more important than you think, and certainly more important than you realize as a beginner.”
Jaap van Zweden sits in a corner by the window in his favorite café De Joffers on the Willemsparkweg. He has been coming there for twenty years, a place with ‘an alternative French atmosphere, not slick, original’. Amsterdam South is his neighborhood. He calls himself very Amsterdam. “The way I live here; I only have a few streets that I go on. I have always created the same thing in another city, New York, Dallas, a neighborhood where I hang out, have breakfast, have lunch. I always take care of my Amsterdam streets around me.”
Van Zweden thinks conducting is the greatest thing there is. He started without expectations, it was an exciting adventure. A conscious adventure indeed. He took thorough lessons, that was the basis. It has not always been an upward trajectory, but a path with challenges. “I had to get to know the orchestra. I know what a bassoon is, but how does such an instrument work? Why is it important to cut a good reed? How can it affect a man’s mind if a reed is not good?”
For many orchestras it is pleasant if you know what you want, Van Zweden learned. At the same time, top orchestras like it when you incorporate tradition, the DNA of the orchestra, into your ideas. “I once asked a horn player at the New York Philharmonic, ‘Why are you breathing here for this note?’ “That’s the tradition here, we’ve been doing it for so many years.” ‘Yes, but why? Try it two notes later and let me know what you think.’ And then he gave him a thumbs up: much better. You have to constantly keep the music alive. Every day I try to find something new in a piece. When that no longer happens, when you are no longer a detective who wants to investigate what else the music can tell you, it becomes routine and an orchestra feels that. And then you have to stop.”
“I think that in due time I will have a very clear sense of when I should stop conducting. But if you think I should stop because the quality leaves much to be desired, you should give me a call. When I said goodbye to the violin, I could really play the violin, right? That was very good, I dare say that. But when I closed the suitcase, it was done. It will be the same with conducting.”
That is also your character, there is a certain degree of rücksichtslosigkeit in it.
“Certainly.”
A person changes throughout life, does your life experience have an impact on conducting?
“Do you think a person changes? I do not think so. Situations change, your environment changes, but essentially you remain the same. One of the big changes in my life has been having a disabled son. That fact has taken a huge toll on the entire family. We increasingly realized that we were walking a tough road, from one school to another: two parents who were panicking about that boy.”
“The heavy burden of that time gave me a depth in my life that I would not have wanted to miss. At that moment, an additional dimension is added to making music. When music is about composers talking about their personal sorrows, it is easier to understand. Ultimately, music thrives on life experience. There are young conductors with an old soul, they are immediately fantastic. Those are the exceptions.”
Daughter Anna-Sophia comes by with grandson, who shows a book. Van Zweden told him: “My piano book, look at it! Wonderful Amsterdam thief, how fantastic! Then grandpa should buy you a piano.”
“My character has Amsterdam swagger,” Van Zweden continues. “And perhaps also the free-spiritedness of the city, which I love very much. It is often said about me that I am very direct, perhaps I say what I think too quickly. I think telling something that takes a detour is a waste of time. Many Amsterdammers think that they have the right on their side, that is also in me. When I started conducting I had little time, plus that Amsterdam mentality, which was sometimes a tough experience for people, including orchestra members. It took me 25 years to learn how to do it, I learned to tame my impatience. Patience is also a way, I wanted too fast. You have planted a seed, and you want to pull out those flowers today. But that’s not possible.”
“Once a year I teach in Gstaad, a new dimension in my life. In the past, I would have exploded with a student like that if I didn’t get it right the first time. Now I think: just do it again. It’s just getting older, I’m already damned 62. Teaching, I’m at an age where that fits. Passing on something is part of nature, paving the way for new people. You have to be able to do that, and you have to do it without jealousy and with enormous dedication. In our profession: not everyone is able to pass on. For me, there have only been two people who helped me a little, Edo de Waart and Leonard Bernstein.”
Do you now know what conducting is?
“Yes of course. Things always go well when you are perfectly prepared, when you have something to say. First comes the music, then the orchestra members and then you come again to put everything into the right form. That’s the order. If you think: first me and then the rest, things will go wrong. Music is the starting point, you should never stand in the middle or pretend that you are the one who wrote all those notes. You have to keep your feet on the ground.”
“Music is my life. To get to know me you have to come to my concerts. I am not much more than that night I conducted. My whole life is wrapped up in an evening like this. I’m married to music, but not to the stage. I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t insist on that anymore. I feel most at home on stage. I have a thing for my audience, but I don’t care about applause. I don’t do it for the applause, but because the music is so wonderful. Success is not important, success comes and goes. If I am buried later, there will really be no success behind my coffin. What you can give is what you take with you in life. When you give to others, you give yourself a lot. Giving is wealth.”
Peter van Ingen: That’s Jaap, Ambo|Anthos, €24.99.
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