VAIL, Colorado — The mountains of Colorado are the perfect setting on a cool summer night to sit outdoors and listen to great music played by The Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Nearly 100-strong, the musicians are currently playing at their highest level, and there — front and center with the baton — is the man most responsible for their success, Music Director Jaap van Zweden.
On the morning after opening night at the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, van Zweden appears relaxed as he reflects on how far the Dallas Symphony Orchestra has come under his direction in just two short years.
"The orchestra sounds different than last year; it has a bigger sound, it's more convinced with everything they are doing, and they feel extremely strong, and I feel comfortable with them," he said. "There is a big trust between us, and seeing that at the end of the season makes me a very happy man."
That trust between the orchestra and its conductor is something van Zweden feels is earned, over time, through hard work.
"When I work with an orchestra normally, they say, 'Well, you are so tough with us, you should have more trust in us,' and I was brought up that you don't just give trust — they have to earn it by working for it, and then the trust will come — both ways — from them to me, and me to them," van Zweden said. "You see that happening now, and that's a wonderful thing."
The 49-year-old maestro declared the opening night concert to be extremely good. "They have an incredible discipline," he said. "It was a crazy rain just before the concert — lightning, thunder, all kinds of things — and it didn't matter for them. They were focused on what they had to do, and they did it."
This is van Zweden's second trip to Vail with the DSO, payback for a long, good season of music at the Meyerson Symphony Center back in Dallas. He said every orchestra should want to play at the Vail festival.
"I think here, or in Dallas, or wherever we play, if it's just for 10,000 people or just ten people, it doesn't make a difference. You should always be the same ... play well."
E-mail gcogill@wfaa.com
