On his 60th birthday, Saturday 12 December, conductor Jaap van Zweden returns to the NTR Saturday Matinee, which celebrates its 60th concert season. He will conduct the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Choir, and a cast of international star soloists in a performance of Beethoven’s opera Fidelio.
Due to the present corona measures, Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, initially scheduled as one of the highlights of the 60th season of the NTR Saturday Matinee series, proved too big a project for the Main Hall of The Concertgebouw. Instead, birthday boy Jaap van Zweden will conduct Ludwig van Beethoven’s opera Fidelio, at the end of the Beethoven Year 2020. With largely the same star cast, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra – of which he was the principal conductor from 2005 to 2011 – and the Netherlands Radio Choir. Both radio ensembles celebrate their 75th anniversary this year.
On Saturday 12 December from 2:15 pm, the postponed live broadcast of this concert can be listened to on NPO Radio 4. On Sunday 13 December from 9:30 pm, the concertante version of the opera will be broadcast on NPO Start.
