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Just before Bas Wiegers conducted his first concerts in front of a live audience in May, he sat down for an interview to reflect on the preceding Corona year.
“Now” is always different, fluid, says conductor Bas Wiegers in his essay about diversity, change, and the power of live performances.
Ludwig van Beethoven, «Coriolan» Overture, Op. 62
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Violinkonzert Nr. 3 G-Dur KV 216
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Symphonie No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 “Scottish”
Bas Wiegers, conductor
Shunsuke Sato, violin, baroque violin
Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra
Claude Debussy, Petite Suite
Joseph Canteloube, Chants d’Auvergne
Sergej Rachmaninow, Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op.44
Sergej Rachmaninow, Symphonic Dances Op. 45
Barbara Kozelj, mezzo-soprano
The “Now” is always different, always in flux – Bas Wiegers
With rousing energy and great openness, Bas Wiegers is one of the most exciting conductors of our time. A guest of European symphony orchestras, soloist ensembles, and opera houses, he masterfully spans the spectrum from Baroque to the music of today.
In his second season as Associated Conductor of the Munich Chamber Orchestra, it is this programmatic range which will be expressed – with works ranging from Haydn to Weill and Dutilleux to the premieres of new concertos by Márton Illés and Chaya Czernowin. In the course of the new 2023/24 season, Bas Wiegers will also conduct subscription concerts of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for the first time; he will further make his debut with the Belgian National Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (Claudio Abbado Concert) and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
In his homeland of the Netherlands, Bas Wiegers has worked with all major orchestras. In addition, he has made guest appearances with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Cologne opera, Theatre Bern, Britten Sinfonia, Ensemble Modern and the SWR Vokalensemble. The latest projects with the Klangforum Wien, of which he was principal guest conductor until summer 2022, included AMOPERA – a dystopian ballad staged by Jan Lauwers at the Tyrolean Festspiele Erl, as well as Umbruch with Thomas Hampson on songs by Mahler and Ives.
With open arms previous partners gladly invite Bas Wiegers to return. He has conducted several times at the Opéra national de Lorraine (Britten, Mozart), the Klagenfurt Theater (Haas, Sciarrino), and is present at festivals such as November Music, Holland Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Prague Spring Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Aldeburgh Music Festival, Ruhrtriennale, and Acht Brücken in Cologne.
Bas Wiegers is a treasured musical partner for composers such as Georges Aperghis, Georg Friedrich Haas, Helmut Lachenmann, Salvatore Sciarrino, and Rebecca Saunders.
In the context of current projects, Bas Wiegers regularly dives deep into the realm of scores: With his podcast The Treasure Hunt he provides his audience with a personal insight into his work process as a conductor.
Following his musical education in Amsterdam and Freiburg, Bas Wiegers began a successful career as a violinist with an emphasis on early music. In 2009 he was awarded a conducting scholarship from the Kersjes Foundation, and later worked as an assistant to Mariss Jansons and Susanna Mälkki at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, an experience which convinced him to focus entirely on conducting.
2023/24 season
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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
“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
Bas Wiegers und das MKO
J. Haydn: Sinfonie Nr. 38 C-Dur Hob. I 38 „Echo"
Igor Stravinsky: Firebird (“L’oiseau de feu”) | Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
Bas Wiegers conducts the SWR Symphony Orchestra
A. Berg: Violinkonzert | Isobel Warmelink | Residentie Orkest
G. Aperghis: Die Hamletmaschine | SWR Vokalensemble, Asko|Schönberg
S. Hilli: Bird | 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.
A. Schönberg: Nuits transfigurées | l'Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Lorraine
Click here for the live radio recording.