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“Now” is always different, fluid, says conductor Bas Wiegers in his essay about diversity, change, and the power of live performances.
Louis Andriessen, De Materie
Bas Wiegers, conductor
Symfonisch Orkest Opera Ballet Vlaanderen
Katrien Baerts, soprano
Elmar Gilbertsson, tenor
Lies Pauwels, speaker
Phia Ménard, Staging
Antonio de Rosa, choreography
Mattia Russo, choreography
Mel Bonis, Ophélie
Missy Mazzoli, These Worlds In Us
Anton Bruckner, Symphony No. 4 E-flat Major "Romantic"
Orchestre de l’Opéra national de Nancy-Lorraine
Claude Debussy, Petite Suite
Claude Vivier, Lonely Child
Chaya Czernowin, Birds
Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 102 in B-flat major, Hob.I:102
Sarah Aristidou, soprano
Chaya Czernowin, composition
Münchener Kammerorchester
Ludwig van Beethoven, Romance for Violin and Orchestra No. 2 in F major, Op. 50
Chaya Czernowin, Moths of Hunger and Awe
Ilya Gringolts, violin
The “Now” is always different, always in flux – Bas Wiegers
With captivating energy and remarkable openness, Bas Wiegers is always at the cutting edge as a conductor. A guest of international symphony orchestras, soloist ensembles, and opera houses, he masterfully spans the spectrum from Baroque to the music of today.
This programmatic range is also expressed in his successful work as associated conductor of the Munich Chamber Orchestra. He will continue in this role for another three years from the start of the 2025/26 season – the programme includes symphonies by Haydn, Ives and Weill, as well as world premieres with Nils Mönkemeyer and Patricia Kopatchinskaja.
Bas Wiegers is often invited back to conduct. During the new season, for example, he will return to the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (Stravinsky's Petrushka) and the WDR Symphony Orchestra. Debuts will take him to the podium of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Orchestre national de Metz, where he will conduct Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. He will also conduct a series of concerts of Poulenc's Stabat Mater with the Croatian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. He will lead the Klangforum Wien, whose principal guest conductor he was until 2022, on a tour to New York.
In his native Netherlands, Bas Wiegers has worked with all major orchestras; most recently, he conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra in three concerts celebrating the 750th anniversary of the city of Amsterdam. He has also appeared as a guest conductor with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Belgian National Orchestra, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Britten Sinfonia, the SWR Vocal Ensemble. He has conducted at the Cologne Opera, the Opéra national de Lorraine (Britten, Mozart), the Theater Bern, the Theater Klagenfurt (Haas, Sciarrino), Festspielhaus Erl, and appeared at festivals such as the Musikfest Berlin, the Salzburg Festival, the Venice Biennale, the Holland Festival, the Tongyeong International Music Festival, the Prague Spring Festival, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Aldeburgh Music Festival, the Ruhrtriennale, the Vienna Festival and Avanti! Summer Sounds.
Bas Wiegers is a treasured musical partner for composers such as Georges Aperghis, Georg Friedrich Haas, Helmut Lachenmann, Salvatore Sciarrino, and Rebecca Saunders.
With his podcast The Treasure Hunt, Bas Wiegers regularly dives deep into the realm of scores and gives his listeners a very personal insight into his working process as a conductor. He is also involved in promoting young talent as guest professor of conducting at the Amsterdam Conservatory.
2025/26 season
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.
G. Rossini: Ouverture La gazza ladra
L. van Beethoven: Concerto for Violin
I. Stravinsky: Pétrouchka
L. van Beethoven: Ouverture Coriolan
I. Stravinsky: Violin Concerto
F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Symphony No. 3
H. Birtwistle: Bach Measures
B. Britten: Les Illuminations
B. Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
A. Webern: Passacaglia
D. Milhaud: La Création du Monde
G. Mahler: Symphony No. 4
G. Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande Suite
T. Keuris: Michelangelo Songs
L. van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
F. Poulenc: La Voix Humaine
K. Weill: Symphony No. 2
"Even in Saariaho’s sophisticated “Verblendungen” (…) Bas Wiegers guides the SWR Symphony Orchestra calmly and with foresight through the complex score. And in Claude Debussy’s magnificently performed “La Mer”, he sets all the crescendos in motion with organic ease. This interpretation is incredibly flexible – with delicate blends of color, the finest of ramifications, and freely shaped phrases, yet also precise in rhythmic detail.(…) The energies ripple through the orchestra like waves. Bas Wiegers forces nothing, but lets things unfold. And at the end, he unleashes, for a brief moment, the full radiance of the brass – only to gently draw back the blazing fortissimo, reminiscent of a wave’s foamy crest. Thunderous applause!"
Georg Rudiger, Badische Zeitung, 14.05.25
"Wiegers conducts with a gradually unfolding pace, not too fast, using a soft and transparent tone, driving everything forward with firm accentuation. It’s a Mozart to be savored."
Renate Freyeisen, O-Ton, 26.05.2025
“You don’t hear Haydn like this every day. The Munich Chamber Orchestra (MKO) and Bas Wiegers performed Haydn’s last symphony, No. 104, not as a warm-up piece, but as a highlight. (…) The conductor and orchestra let Haydn’s motivic work bubble, setting the scene with finesse and dynamic sophistication. The homogeneously articulating strings were almost driven into drama by the winds and timpani in the Andante, which constantly surprised with new twists and turns, before the oboe led the trio in the hearty minuet. Vibrancy, rhythmic pulsation, folk-song-like qualities, all delicately seasoned, made the finale a pre-Christmas gift.”
Gabriele Luster, Münchner Merkur, 16/12/2023
“Wiegers accentuated subtlety and spirit, profundity and temperament, in short: Haydn’s greatness.“
Robert Braunmüller, Abendzeitung München, 16/12/2023
"Conductor Bas Wiegers once again demonstrated his impeccable sense of excellent timing and the creation of a vivid soundsphere.
bachtrack.com, Michael Klier, 29 October 2023 – on the NTR-Zaterdagmatinee with Asko | Schönberg and Pierre Laurent Aimard, Concertgebouw Amsterdam
“Bas Wiegers on the podium with dancelike ease in front of the WDR Symphony Orchestra. (…) One rarely hears new music so entertaining, so beautiful.”
nmz, Georg Beck, June 2022 – on Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik
Bas Wiegers and the orchestra had good fun with the constant alternation between rebellion and complaisance in Beethoven’s so effervescently lively Seventh (…). The Presto had the right drive from the start, after the maestro smoothly performed a little dance gesture before giving the first cue. In the end, at any rate, one could no longer escape the pull of the finale with its intoxicating swirls and tempi.
Helmut Peters, Hamburger Abendblatt, 25/04/2022
“Under the multi-layered direction of Dutch conductor Bas Wiegers, at the helm of a supple and acoustically flattering Orchestre de l’Opéra de Lorraine and a chorus with beautiful cohesion, the performance is captivating thanks to the principal roles.”
Bruno Serrou, la-croix.com, 20/12/2021
“Looking at conductor Bas Wiegers from a podium seat in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, one sees nothing superfluous. With a neutral gaze and efficient gestures, he leads the Radiophilharmonie remarkably smoothly through Sergei Prokofiev’s rather complex, rarely performed Sixth Symphony. Musician among musicians: this attitude brings Wiegers increasing success.”
Guido van Oorschot, volkskrant.nl, 11/1/2021
“After the intermission, the orchestra played works by Messiaen and Ravel (…). Conductor Bas Wiegers, who had stepped in at the last minute for the ill Ryan Wigglesworth, left an excellent impression and rightly received applause from the orchestra, which played superbly under his direction.”
nrc.nl. 01/12/2019
“The hero of the day, by the way, was Bas Wiegers. As a stand-in conductor, he had one week to master four scores. A daring feat – and then to also deliver such gently swinging, constantly changing colours of Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales.”
Guido van Oorschot, volkskrant.nl, 01/12/2019
“Following the intermission, Wiegers‘ mastery revealed itself in Chronochromie. His tempos were swift, consistently drawing out brilliantly virtuoso playing from the phenomenal drummers. This was also true of the strings solo in the sixth movement, Épôde. Here, Wiegers maintained the harmony of the whole while highlighting with his baton the distinct motifs and individual voices mimicking birdsong.”
Michael Klier, bachtrack.com, 02/12/2019
“What’s truly amazing is the music. After the premiere, Haas could only kneel down to thank Bas Wiegers, in leading the orchestra, for such a remarkable performance. Given that there was no light to lead him through the trenches, the conductor had to rely on his own mental powers of transmission.”
Michael Cerha, The Standard, 30/03/2019
“Andriessen’s music was played by the Dutch Asko|Schönberg ensemble and conductor Bas Wiegers with incredible precision and virtuosity.“
Kölner Stadtanzeiger
C.Debussy: La mer | Bas Wiegers| SWR Symphonieorchester
Interview: Bas Wiegers, Associated Conductor of the MKO
J. Sibelius: Four Humoresques for Violin & Orchestra, op 89 | Ilya Gringolts | Bas Wiegers | Hong Kong Sinfonietta
J. Haydn: Sinfonie Nr. 38 C-Dur Hob. I 38 „Echo" | Bas Wiegers | MKO
G. Aperghis: Die Hamletmaschine | SWR Vokalensemble, Asko | Schönberg
Bas Wiegers conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra: Maurice Ravel - Shéhérazade, Ravel - Ma mère l’oye and works by Leo Smit and Theo Loevendie
Click here to listen to the radio broadcast of Bas Wiegers' debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Bas Wiegers´ Podcast: The Treasure Hunt: Interview with Patricia Kopatchinskaja: in search of why we play