A Wanderer Comes of Age: Niall Hoskin reviews the third instalment of Jaap van Zweden’s Hong Kong ‘Ring’

Review of Siegfried, conducted van Zweden, Hong Kong, 2017 (Naxos, 4 CDs).

March 2018, Volume 12, Number 1, 88–90.

The special challenges of Siegfried confront Jaap van Zweden and the Hong Kong Philharmonic as they reach the third year in their Ring project. With the smallest cast in the four operas, and a succession of scenes involving just two or three characters, the work places great demands on individual voices, not only in the perilously taxing eponymous role. There is an added subtlety and richness in the handling of the orchestra, and there is the question of humour: while it may be going too far to call Siegfried the scherzo of the Ring, it demands a lightness of touch from the conductor.