Favourite Bernard Haitink recordings

[Petrushka]

Anyone familiar with Bernard's La Damnation de Faust ?

I have had to buy it and must give it a spin sometime.

Not a work I have ever taken to my heart. To be honest, it's another of those Berlioz works
I don't properly understand !

Hi Alison, Despite having attended a few performances of the D of F over the years, I share your ambivalence about the piece. I don't have a recording at all on my groaning shelves and have so far resisted the Haitink set. One for the list, though, at some stage.

[Roslynmuse]

1971 Heldenleben, Hermann Krebbers playing the violin solos - one of the finest recordings of that work, especially the final pages. I've known it for more than 30 years and it never fails.

Debussy Jeux - surely the best - most natural, inevitably paced - performance committed to disc.

Does anyone know the Haitink/ Ashkenazy Beethoven Piano Concertos from the 70s? They are available on DVD now.

The only recordings I've been disappointed by are his Tchaikovsky Symphonies - just a bit too safe and sane.

[Petrushka]

1971 Heldenleben, Hermann Krebbers playing the violin solos - one of the finest recordings of that work, especially the final pages. I've known it for more than 30 years and it never fails

That was the very first Haitink record I bought (Feb 1973) and I agree with your assessment.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Seeing this thread active again, I was prompted to search once more for Haitink's LPO Scheherazade, as recommended by Alison, at a decent price. Result, thanks to Amazon!

[Barbirollians]

Bizet Symphony in C.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

1971 Heldenleben, Hermann Krebbers playing the violin solos - one of the finest recordings of that work, especially the final pages. I've known it for more than 30 years and it never fails.

The recording from which I learnt the work, thanks to a cassette borrowed from the local library.

Debussy Jeux - surely the best - most natural, inevitably paced - performance committed to disc.

I think the work is far too good for any one performance to be "the best", but I love Haitink's Debussy, and this is particularly good.

The only recordings I've been disappointed by are his Tchaikovsky Symphonies - just a bit too safe and sane.

Oh, but his Manfred is one of my favourites: it becomes Tchaikovsky's greatest symphony in this reading.

For similar reasons, I've always admired his Shostakovich cycle more than any other on record. The symphonic logic of the glorious Fourth is understood and communicated more powerfully than on any other performance I've heard, without compromising the ferocity and anguish in which many other performances over-indulge.

Best Wishes.

[Chris Newman]

His Shostakovich is astounding.

[Petrushka]

His Shostakovich is astounding.

One of the most memorable concerts I've ever attended was Haitink and the Concertgebouw in Birmingham Town Hall on May 13 1981 in a quite stunning account of the Shostakovich 5. Fast forward two years to the 1983 Proms and an astonishing and powerful Shostakovich 8 also with the Concertgebouw. You don't forget concerts like those. Astounding? I'd say so!

[HighlandDougie]

I would add the Shostakovich 4 with the European Union Youth Orchestra at the 1997 Edinburgh Festival. Young musicians playing as if their lives depended on it and Haitink's firm grasp of this wonderful piece of music - quite unforgettable.

[akiralx]

Not sure if already mentioned:

Elgar: Symphony 2
Strauss: Tod und Verklarung
Vaughan Williams: Symphony 6 (though the cycle is obviously excellent).

[John Skelton]

I remember a beautifully played & exciting Bruckner 5th symphony at the Proms in the early 1980s with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. The Dutch Philips set of Christmas Mahler concerts is a favourite of mine.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Elgar: Symphony 2

Oh Dear: one of Haitink's "failures" for me, I'm afraid. (To be fair, he doesn't think much of mine, either!)

Vaughan Williams: Symphony 6 (though the cycle is obviously excellent).

Oh YES! How could I have forgotten this superb cycle in my list? (The answer's obvious, and it would be polite not to answer!)

Best Wishes.

[Petrushka]

I remember a beautifully played & exciting Bruckner 5th symphony at the Proms in the early 1980s with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. The Dutch Philips set of Christmas Mahler concerts is a favourite of mine.

I was at that Concertgebouw/Haitink Bruckner 5 at the 1980 Proms where we had Kyrill Kondrahin the following night in Rachmaninov 2. What memories!

The Mahler Christmas set of DVD's and CD's (I have both) would be the first ones rescued from the flames should it ever come to that.

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I understand that there's to be an LSO Live release of Haitink's Bruckner 4.

[PJPJ]

I understand that there's to be an LSO Live release of Haitink's Bruckner 4.

There is, and on RCO Live Shostakovich's 15th also with Haitink.