21-09-2017 Fanfare Magazine
"The New York Philharmonic will serve as an ideal platform. Already I find him a superb Brucknerian, and if he continues in the same vein, his fame should be assured."
01-11-2016 Kerk en Leven
""From the begin until the end you will enjoy a fine translation, fresh played from the liver and with a youth bravura,but always to the point. ""
13-10-2016 Opus Klassiek
""Van Zweden's version gives a special attraction to the slow part, where he is stronger than most of his colleagues, he knows how to get the melancholic interpretation in the spotlight.""
01-08-2015 Klassieke Zaken
"[''].. A right up the alley of Jaap van Zweden, who has proven himself over the years as an animated Bruckner performer.""
01-08-2015 Telegraaf
""Jaap van Zweden is the ultimate Bruckner-conductor. Whoever still doubts that, should listen to this recording." "
01-08-2015 GRAMOPHONE
"['']...With warm and clear sound on both CD and SCAD layers, it is difficult to think of a finer version of the First Symphony in the catalogue...['']"
22-06-2015 NRC
""The Scherzo with sharp edges and explosive final are of a childish brutality that Bruckner would definitely approve.""
06-01-2015 concertonet.com
"Taken at a good rhythm, the Scherzo is very well played, acting as beautiful transition with the last movement which, not to be precipitated, is nevertheless conducted with impetus by a Jaap van Zweden who, undoubtedly, asserts himself as a an excellent “brucknerien” (Bruckner player)"
01-12-2013 Musical Opinion
"One cannot imagine a finer performance than this, being so wunderfully played and recorded and interpreted with genuine love and insight - rare qualities today."
01-10-2013 BBC Music Magazine
"Jaap van Zweden is now the leading interpreter of Bruckner's Symphonies, and has trained his orchestra to perform them brilliantly. This is a leading recommendation. "
24-09-2013 Kwadratuur
"Van Zwden lets his orchestra play comfortably and that is what you hear in the loud passages, where the Radio Orchestra Philharmonich sounds smooth and warm"
01-08-2013 Music Web International
"The recorded catalogue boasts more good performances of the Symphony now than used to be the case a few years ago. The arrival of this excellent new version with van Zweden and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic makes that even more true. "
14-07-2013 Sunday Times UK
"This is a mature and powerful reading of the Sixth Symphony, the most original and adventurous of the nine."
20-06-2013 Pizzicato blog
""In Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony van Zweden achieves a good mix of rhythm, serenity and solemnity. The Netherlands Radio Orchestra’s playing is outstanding.""
17-06-2013 Luister
"Van Zweden creates a completely different version. With, for me, new insights."
13-05-2013 Bamberger Online-Zeitung
"A star is born. Jaap van Zweden helped out for diseased Mariss Jansons, led the Berlin Philharmonics through Bartóks dodgy "Concert for Orchestra" and finished with a enthusiastic celebrated Brahms."
13-05-2013 NRC Handelsblad
"As a hungry sound fetishist he let the the sonority of the strings - more bulbous and more tempestuous with the Concertgebouw Orchestra - shine. As if you put your ear to the echoing torso of a humming symphonic giant."
10-05-2013 Berliner Tagesspiegel
"Van Zweden proves himself a cunning powerhouse with striking gestures, a disciplinairian who models all notes with his fingers. The orchestra follows him willingly and realizes the enormous heterogeneity of Bartók with broad brushstrokes."
03-05-2013 Irish Times
"5 stars
Van Zweden has an enviably straightforward way with Bruckner, favouring well-blended textures at points where other conductors have sought virtuoso blaze, always managing to move with an easy, natural gait, and achieving climactic impact without even resorting to excessive force."
01-05-2013 Music Web International
"Recording of the month
Jaap van Zweden is one of the most seasoned Bruckner conductors working today and this new version of Bruckner's Third is undoubtedly a major achievement."
17-02-2013 Platomania
"For this recording the 'Zweiter Fassung' from 1877 was chosen, resulting in this impressive sound and masterful uncomplicated performance."
23-10-2012 Luister
" Luister 10!
"I can't do nothing else than praise this masterly performance with such great vision. This is with distance the best Bruckner 8 of the last decade.""
01-09-2012 International Record Review
"The recording quality of this issue is quite magnificent. This performance will be presented in an intelligent, sympathetic and profoundly musical manner. This is a very important recording from an increasingliy important conductor, fully deserving of the accolade 'Outstanding'."
01-03-2012 The Wagner Journal
"The most distinctive feature and greatest asset of this recording is the simply wonderful sound-world that Jaap van Zweden and the recording engineers have together conjured up for this work: it is luminous, detailes are well balanced"
01-03-2012 Opera
"Extremely fine achievement from an impressive orchestra under an idiomatic instinctive Wagnerian"
01-11-2011 International Record Review
"This Parsifal never gets too loud; it may just be the most lyrically spotless, smoothest reading the opera has ever has. String playing shimmers at all times and the winds breathe."
01-11-2011 BBC Music Magazine
"The main glory here is the superb playing of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. It respinds to every demand of the score, under the inspiring baton of Jaap van Zweden, who seems to be the ideal man to conduct this incredible score, which wounds and heals simultaneously."