In January the New York Philharmonic announced the appointment of Jaap van Zweden as its next music director commencing the 2018-19 season. As the Dutch conductor may not be well-known to many, “Trove Thursday” offers a recent performance of Béla Bartók’s A kékszakállú herceg vára, otherwise known as Bluebeard’s Castle, conducted by van Zweden with Matthias Goerne who rarely sings staged opera in the U.S. and Michelle deYoung who sometimes seems to sing nothing but Judith. 

Other than this Bartók, van Zweden only seems to conduct operas by Wagner. He led a concert performance of Tristan und Isolde with Jennifer Wilson this past fall in Amsterdam, and he’s released a Parsifal on CD with the same orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. In May he’s also scheduled for a run of Lohengrin at the Wiener Staatsoper.

Van Zweden is in the midst of a new Ring with the Hong Kong Philharmonic for the Naxos label, and Das Rheingold featuring today’s Judith and Bluebeard as Fricka and Wotan was reviewed here in December by Adriel. Walküre was recorded in January with Petra Lang, Heidi Melton, Stuart Skelton and Falk Struckmann joining de Young and Goerne.

De Young sings Bartók’s opera yet again next season opposite John Relyea with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra in both Philadelphia and at Carnegie Hall.

Bartok: Bluebeard’s Castle
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
6 Nov 2014

Judith: Michelle DeYoung
Bluebeard: Matthias Goerne

Conductor: Jaap van Zweden

Bluebeard, last week’s complete original-cast Follies and all previous “Trove Thursday” fare are available from iTunes or via any RSS reader.