Performing Arts

Jaap van Zweden doesn't take over as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's music director until September. But already he's in the thick of planning for a 2010 European tour with the orchestra, not to mention picking a new assistant conductor and expanding the orchestra's repertory.

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Jaap van Zweden conducts the Dallas Symphony Orchestra during a rehearsal on Tuesday.

On his desk, in the music director's office at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, is a sheaf of paper scheduling him by the hour and half-hour.

He's also in town this week to conduct the orchestra and the Dallas Symphony Chorus in Verdi's flamboyant Requiem. The soloists will be soprano Christine Brewer, mezzo Jill Grove, tenor Stuart Neil and bass Raymond Aceto. The three performances, Thursday through Saturday, will be the conductor's last here before the start of the 2008-09 season, in September.

BEN FREDMAN/DMN

The new DSO conductor plans to introduce more newer music -especially newer European music.

The European tour is Mr. van Zweden's big news. Both here and in Europe, the DSO's appointment of the up-and-coming Dutchman has been seen as a bold move, so there will be lots of interest.

Although still little known this side of the Atlantic, he's been conducting more widely in Europe, where he's also remembered for his early years as the youngest-ever concertmaster of Amsterdam's Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. And he's getting glowing reviews.

Mr. van Zweden says the DSO is aiming for the continent's big three musical centers: Berlin, Vienna and Amsterdam.

"We are thinking of Shostakovich Seven and Mahler One as the two main pieces," he says. Other smaller works would fill out the programs.

Mr. van Zweden looks forward to making recordings with the DSO, but not right away.

"I think in the first season it will be good if we can just sniff a little bit on each other," he says. "I don't think you should make a CD directly in the first weeks or months. Take a little time, and then we start. But my heart says I can't wait to make my first recording with the orchestra."

In the meantime, on the other side of the Atlantic, he's halfway through a recorded cycle of Anton Bruckner's hefty symphonies with his Dutch orchestra, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. Unfortunately, the Japanese label Exton isn't yet available in the U.S., but the company is in negotiations with American distributors.

The DSO's 2008-09 season was largely planned before Mr. van Zweden was announced as music director-designate, in February 2007. The programming was pretty much the work of former president and CEO Fred Bronstein, who stepped down this past February to go to the St. Louis Symphony.

"I didn't want to interfere too much," Mr. van Zweden says of plans for the season, when he'll conduct 11 of 21 classical programs. "But a few things we could do: a New Year's concert – let's see how it works – and an opera in concert," which will be Madama Butterfly.

"I think it's very important for an orchestra to work with singers, and to be extremely flexible. I truly believe we should do that every year, one opera performance. Of course, we have to discuss it with the the opera next door, so we don't do the same opera. I want them to be completely comfortable with it, because we respect them enormously."

For the future, he's even contemplating Wagner's Lohengrin for concert performances.

Beyond next season, Mr. van Zweden plans to introduce more newer music –especially newer European music, rarely performed by the DSO in recent years.

"Hopefully, the hall will not be half-empty," he says with a laugh.

"We have to do it carefully, and securely. I strongly believe in a so-called sandwich. If I do a piece by Luciano Berio or Wolfgang Rihm, I will always combine that with a nice Beethoven, Mahler, Bruckner, whatever.

"Of course, there will also be composers from this region, which we are already doing this year. It doesn't matter if it's European or American or South American or Chinese, as long as it is new and fresh and interesting for us to do. For me, there are no musical borders."

But he also acknowledges the conservative tastes of many DSO patrons.

"You cannot make everybody happy. But I think as a music director it is very important that you listen to a lot of people, and not only people who want Beethoven and Mozart. I know they want it, and they will get it. But we've also got to do something special in the next years."

Amsterdam will remain home base for the conductor and his family, but they've found a condo in Uptown for a pied-à-terre.

Plan your life

Jaap van Zweden conducts the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, 2301 Flora. $29 to $110. 214-692-0203, www.dallassymphony.com.