Storms in the South China Sea: Christopher Morley finds much to admire in a new recording of Wagner’s early masterpiece

Review of Der fliegende Holländer, conducted van Zweden, Hong Kong, 2024 (Naxos, 2 CDs).

March 2026, Volume 20, Number 1, 88–9.

Abandoning the staples of comic opera and stifling Meyerbeerian spectacle, in Der fliegende Holländer, the earliest work now holding a place in his operatic canon, Wagner set about exploring the intimacy of human longing and expectation, making the orchestra both a confiding partner and a voluble expression of personality. In this new, bargain-price recording, Jaap van Zweden makes his Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra virtually the star of the show. The Dutch conductor already has a fine Ring cycle on the Naxos label from these forces under his belt, and he knows how to draw well-cushioned and bristling string playing, finely shaped woodwind solos and sturdy, noble brass from this ensemble. There is also an eloquent timpanist, rumbling with rolls, certainly, but also tapping out portentous mutterings.