The Sound of Silence
A 60th birthday would normally be cause for extensive celebration, but Jaap van Zweden stuck to the rules for his on December 12. Having returned to his hometown of Amsterdam, where local laws prohibit a gathering of more than two people who don’t live in the same home, the music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) enjoyed a low-key dinner at home with his immediate family. “What can you do?” he says drily. “A party with just two people wouldn’t have been very interesting.”
Despite almost a full year of concert cancellations and disrupted programming, the Dutch conductor and violinist, who has led the HK Phil since 2012, had at
