Four well groomed and wonderful recorded sacd's with beautiful Armand Campi paintings on the cover. Modern looking paintings but with an allmost nostalgic and romantic touch according to the music of Zwaag. Tonal, clearly formed and well written for the instruments and formost melodic.

In general the music of Zwaag is very compelling with its feeling for melody and large form.

He will oblige many and surtainly also young listeners.

The Neurenburg Symphony, who rated Zwaag as their 'composer of the house',

plays everything very convincingly together with the soloists

 

It really seems as if we are in the middle of the German Romantic period. Nevertheless, under the voice, the harmonies are telling a different story, a story of today, a time beyond the 20th century avant-garde, of a moment in which everybody, in his own personal way, is trying to find the connection to the late 19th and early 20th century tradition.

This set with music of the Dutch composer Wim Zwaag (1960) is one of the most extraordinary releases that ever was brought to my attention.

The performances by mezzosoprano Anja Wilbrink (Symphony) and the Nurenburg Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Hans Rotman and Ivan Anguélov are of the highest level and it is clear that friend and enemy of contemporary music will enjoy this set to the fullest, which also has, technical, a very high standard.

 

I have sympathy towards the music of the Dutch composer Wim Zwaag. His music could have been written throughout the whole of the twentieth century, although it had to develop so quickly. We could call the music of Zwaag (1960) conservative in a way. Tonal, idiomatic instrument use and the orchestra sounds wonderful. One hears Prokofjev and Ravel so now and then, but their work has the same virtues so that doesn’t matter.

I marvelled Zwaag’s Clarinet Concerto, with its virtuoso lines and Yiddish moments with a fully used symphonic orchestra. His PianoQuartet is transparent and clear and has a Shostakowitsj like performance. In all his scores I heard satisfied musicians. This music challenges to play delightfully. ...

Zwaag will have a long list of listeners.

Stephen Westra in “Klassieke Zaken’  January 2007