New York To Amsterdam

Dutch Maestro Willem Mengelberg, New York Philharmonic music director from 1922-1930, began a special musical relationship between New York and Amsterdam, now almost a century long.

Hired ten years after Mahler's untimely death at the helm of the New York Philharmonic, Mengelberg continued the tradition of meticulous precision and perfectionism insisted on by his friend and colleague.

A Mahler champion in Amsterdam, Mengelberg inaugurated the Mahler Festival and frequently invited Mahler to conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He introduced New York to Mahler's Third and Seventh symphonies.

Mengelberg's exacting score markings reflect his exhilarating performances. In addition to Mahler he was noted as a great Tchaikovsky interpreter.

He led the New York Philharmonic's first electric recording, Wagner's Flying Dutchman Overture, and was the first Philharmonic conductor with a substantial recording legacy.

Mengelberg's tenure overlapped with his compatriot Willem van Hoogstraten, a frequent Philharmonic guest conductor who soon took the reigns of the Philharmonic's annual low-cost summer season at the outdoor Lewisohn Stadium.

Van Hoogstraten would lead the Stadium concerts long after Mengelberg's departure in over 400 performances through the late 1930s.

An RCO portrait signed by the musicians, commemorating their meeting in 1954. A New York equivalent was delivered to Amsterdam.

The New York Philharmonic reciprocated the tour in September 1968 with a performance at the Concertgebouw led by Leonard Bernstein. The Philharmonic has since returned to Amsterdam on seven occasions.

Meanwhile, the Dutch conducting tradition kept pace in New York. The New York Philharmonic has fostered long relationships with Bernard Haitink (32 performances beginning in 1975)...

...and Edo de Waart (20 performances, beginning with his 1964 appearance as winner of the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Music Competition where he was appointed assistant conductor to then Music Director Leonard Bernstein).

Maestro Jaap van Zweden made his New York Philharmonic debut in 2012 and was welcomed as Music Director in 2018, the second Dutch conductor to be appointed to the position.

Concertmaster of the RCO for sixteen years, Jaap van Zweden was introduced to conducting by Leonard Bernstein.

In his first season as Music Director, Jaap van Zweden championed the music of Louis Andriessen, giving the contemporary music of his country a platform not seen before at the New York Philharmonic.