In a previous life, as the youngest-ever concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, tonight's conductor (making his Proms debut in that role) played almost all the Bruckner symphonies under some of the great interpreters of an older generation.
More recently, at the helm of this versatile Dutch radio orchestra, he has been preparing and recording his own cycle to great acclaim.
The Eighth remains a particular challenge, one of the most momentous 'darkness to light' journeys in the whole symphonic repertoire.
Before the interval, a Proms debut from the quietly iconoclastic French pianist David Fray, who has already collaborated on disc with van Zweden in the imposing concerto he performs tonight.
