A Journey Completed: Jaap van Zweden on Götterdämmerung and the HK Phil’s Ring Cycle Finale
After four years and three installments, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra is preparing to close the final chapter of its Ring Cycle journey. In a recent conversation with Lawrence Schofield, Music Director Maestro Jaap van Zweden reflected on what has been an extraordinary artistic undertaking
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An Orchestra Transformed
For van Zweden, the Ring Cycle has been more than a programming achievement. It has fundamentally reshaped the Hong Kong Philharmonic as an ensemble. He points to the orchestra’s recent performance of Die Walküre at the Beijing Music Festival as proof: “You could feel already that the orchestra has so much improved… the orchestra were the talk of the town in Beijing.”
The conductor describes the journey as one of mutual growth — for the musicians, for the organization, and for himself personally. “If you open this orchestra and look at it as a treasury, a big box,” he says, “I think with having this music on our list, we put some extra diamonds in that box.” Those diamonds, he believes, will remain part of the orchestra’s identity for generations.
Wagner’s World — and His Contradictions
Schofield raises the question of Wagner’s controversial legacy, acknowledging both his antisemitism and his revolutionary artistic impact. Van Zweden does not shy away from the former, calling it “the side we all don’t like,” but draws a clear distinction between the man and the music. For him, Wagner’s sound world stands entirely on its own — a universe unto itself that sits alongside, yet apart from, the worlds of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms.
What makes Wagner so enduring? Van Zweden describes his ability to navigate between the material and the spiritual — between greed, power, and earthly desire on one hand, and transcendence and eternal light on the other. “He has everything,” van Zweden says simply. Central to this is Wagner’s masterful use of leitmotifs, which allow the music to anticipate and mirror the drama in real time. “Just before a giant steps up, you hear in the music that he’s going to step up,” van Zweden explains. “He brings you all the time everything.”
Götterdämmerung: The Sum of All Parts
As the culmination of the Ring Cycle, Götterdämmerung carries an exceptional musical weight. Van Zweden explains that all the motives introduced across the first three operas return here — “in double size,” as he puts it — while also foreshadowing the later works Die Meistersinger and Parsifal. Technically, it is the most demanding of the four operas, requiring enormous resources from everyone involved.
Three choruses will perform together: the Hong Kong Philharmonic Chorus, joined by ensembles from Bamberg and Latvia. Van Zweden is particularly proud that the local chorus plays a central role, reflecting his belief in Hong Kong’s own artistic talent. Adding further distinction to the production is a chorus master from the Bayreuth Festival — the spiritual home of Wagnerian opera — with whom van Zweden shares a history from their time working together in Amsterdam.
Preparation, Then Freedom
When asked what he hopes to achieve with this performance, van Zweden shares a philosophy that speaks to the heart of live performance. He recalls a story about the legendary dancer Rudolf Nureyev, whose teacher pushed him relentlessly in rehearsal — then told him, just before going onstage, to forget everything he had learned and simply dance. “What I would like to see,” van Zweden says, “is that we really give 110% in the preparation, but then forget what we did. Just enjoy the music and let it flow from the heart.”
Art as Food for the Soul
The conversation also turns to how younger audiences can be drawn into classical music — and Wagner in particular. Van Zweden’s answer is both practical and deeply felt. It starts, he says, with children singing in school choirs: an experience that opens the heart and builds community. But beyond music, he makes a broader case for art itself. “We feed our children every day, and that’s very good,” he says, “but we should realize that we should also feed the soul. Art is food for our soul.”
He is optimistic that if that understanding takes hold, “we will create a human race which still loves music.”
The Cast
Götterdämmerung features Brit Bachmann as Brünnhilde and Daniel Brenna as Siegfried, alongside a young Chinese bass whose involvement van Zweden speaks of with evident enthusiasm. Though he has not worked with all the singers previously, he frames that unfamiliarity as part of the adventure. “The biggest risk we can take as musicians,” he says, “is not to take risk.”
