After initially learning to play the piano Edo de Waart took up the oboe, studying this instrument with Haakon Stotijn at the Amsterdam Conservatory where he also studied conducting with Spaanderman. In 1960 he was a member of Dean Dixon’s conducting seminar at Salzburg and the following year he was appointed co-principal oboe of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, before graduating from the Conservatory in 1962. He was appointed co-principal oboe of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1963, but following his participation in a conducting course with Franco Ferrara at Hilversum, he made his conducting debut in 1964 with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and went on to win the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition in the same year. As part of the prize he worked as assistant conductor to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Leonard Bernstein for the 1965–1966 season.
After this experience, during which de Waart maintained he actually conducted for only three-and-a-half hours in the whole year, he was appointed assistant conductor to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and Bernard Haitink. The following year, 1967, was important for de Waart: he toured the USA with the Concertgebouw; founded the Netherlands Wind Ensemble (which he directed until 1971); and was appointed as permanent guest conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra alongside its conductor Jean Fournet. He went on to become this orchestra’s chief conductor between 1973 and 1979. During this time he also gained considerable international exposure, touring with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble (for instance to Japan in 1972) and as a guest conductor, notably in opera, appearing with the Netherlands Opera (1970), Santa Fé Opera (1971), Houston Grand Opera (1975), Royal Opera Company, Covent Garden (1976) and the Bayreuth Festival (1979). In 1975 he appeared with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, with which he was to enjoy a long association, being appointed principal guest conductor in 1976 and chief conductor from 1977 to 1985.
While at San Francisco, de Waart initiated a vigorous policy of support for contemporary music, presenting the first performances of works by Steve Reich and John Adams amongst others. Between 1986 and 1995 he continued to work in the USA as chief conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra. In addition he was appointed chief conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in 1989 and of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 1993, the latter following great public acclaim when he conducted the orchestra during its sixtieth birthday celebrations. He remained with this orchestra until 2003 and toured internationally with it to Europe (1995), Japan and Taiwan (1996), and the USA (1998). He continued also to be active in opera, for instance conducting Wagner’s Ring cycle in San Francisco (1985), Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and Le nozze di Figaro at the Salzburg Festival (1996). He became chief conductor of the Netherlands Opera at the start of the 1999–2000 season, and of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra from the start of the 2004–2005 season.
Edo de Waart is an accomplished musician with a large repertoire. In his early days with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble he was noted for his stylish interpretations of Mozart and Richard Strauss, and as his career has developed he has shown a preference for large-scale late-Romantic works as well as contemporary repertoire. His recording career tends to reflect this development. During the earlier part of his career he was recorded extensively by the Dutch company Philips, and amongst many notable recordings were his interpretations of the two symphonies of Kurt Weill with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, as well as fine performances of the three Rachmaninov symphonies with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and works by Rachmaninov for piano and orchestra with Rafael Orozco and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. This latter cycle has received consistent praise. While at the head of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra de Waart did not record exclusively for Philips: for instance for Telarc he recorded Joseph Jongen’s massive Symphonie Concertante for Organ and Orchestra, with the organist Michael Murray. After he left the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra the ties with Philips loosened further, and de Waart’s name appeared on a variety of different labels. He recorded Glazunov’s ballet score The Seasons with the Minnesota Orchestra for Telarc, as well as Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, and Richard Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie and Sinfonia Domestica with the same orchestra for Virgin.
Among the numerous contemporary works that he has recorded are pieces by John Adams for Nonesuch and ECM (the opera Nixon in China for the former and Harmonium for the latter), Michael Torke’s Book of Proverbs for Decca, and Steve Reich’s Variations for Winds, Strings and Keyboard for Deutsche Grammophon. Throughout de Waart’s career he has conducted the works of twentieth-century Dutch composers, such as Otto Ketting, Hans Kox, and Ton de Leeuw, recording their works on the Donemus label. His extensive activity in the opera house has not been fully reflected on disc, although Philips did issue a studio account of him conducting Der Rosenkavalier with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and Marco Polo has issued a Netherlands Radio performance of Franz Schreker’s powerful late-Romantic opera Die Gezeichneten. de Waart’s activities outside of Europe, in Australia and the USA, and his relatively limited appearance on CD since the middle 1980s, may have combined to cause contemporary audiences in Europe at least to underestimate his considerable musical strengths.
