Favourite Bernard Haitink recordings

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  • BBMmk2
    Late Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 20908

    Thinking back to that marvelous Brahms cycle Haitink did with the CoE, at the Proms this year, one of the few higlights of that damp squib oif a season, I do hope they will make a recording of it!
    Don’t cry for me
    I go where music was born

    J S Bach 1685-1750

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    • Petrushka
      Full Member
      • Nov 2010
      • 12260

      Originally posted by PJPJ View Post
      There is, and on RCO Live Shostakovich's 15th also with Haitink.

      Good news! However, it is disappointing to see Haitink re-recording the same pieces again and again. Those of us who have attended BH concerts over the years know that his repertoire is much larger than his recorded legacy suggests.
      "The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink

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      • Barbirollians
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 11709

        I like Haitink as a conductor and indeed his VW symphonies are excellent and I think he made some marvellous recordings of French music . There are some duds though and his Bruckner 7 I would name - deathly dull.

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        • jayne lee wilson
          Banned
          • Jul 2011
          • 10711

          Which B7, Bb? I've always liked the live one in the Concertgebouw radio recordings box - dramatic, dynamic and notably swift at 62'14, very close to the fiery Knappertsbusch with Vienna Phil 8/1949! Yet his studio reading with the Concertgebouw is even quicker, just over the hour! Sorry, but I do find it very bracing. It is at least astringent to the palate after Wand or Karajan, not to mention Celibidache. I sometimes felt Haitink became too reverent in his austo-german readings with VPO or Berlin Phil, but rediscovered more urgency during his too-brief tenure with the Dresden Staatskapelle - I'll never forget them at the Bridgewater in 2003 with Bruckner 6 (just a few weeks after the performance on the Profil disc); after the first extraordinary climax, I thought "can I cope with this for an hour?"

          He did, of all things, Lutoslawski's 4th last spring on the Berlin DCH - made a tricky piece totally riveting! Don't know if he's ever set it down - suspect not.
          Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post
          I like Haitink as a conductor and indeed his VW symphonies are excellent and I think he made some marvellous recordings of French music . There are some duds though and his Bruckner 7 I would name - deathly dull.
          Last edited by jayne lee wilson; 07-10-11, 02:32.

          Comment

          • remdataram
            Full Member
            • Mar 2011
            • 154

            Among the many recordings of Mahler No.2 I keep returning to Haitink's 1993 BPO recording on Phillips.

            Nobody ever seems to mention this recording, but I really think that it's up there with the best.

            With so much that Haitink has recorded, nothing stands out - just the music. He is so undervalued.

            Comment

            • Petrushka
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 12260

              Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post
              There are some duds though and his Bruckner 7 I would name - deathly dull.
              In the immortal words of J McEnroe, 'You cannot be serious!

              Bruckner 7 is the work I've seen Haitink conduct more than any other with something like half a dozen at the Proms alone with unforgettable accounts from the BPO, Dresden Staatskapelle, BBCSO and EUYO amongst them. A stunning reading as well from the Chicago SO at the RFH a couple of years ago. Jayne Lee Wilson is spot on in her assessment of the Concertgebouw account in the superb radio recordings box. I bought that box in the Barbican when it was ÂŁ74 and wouldn't part with it even if my life depended on it.
              "The sound is the handwriting of the conductor" - Bernard Haitink

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              • Barbirollians
                Full Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 11709

                The Philips studio recording of Bruckner 7 is the one I found dull .

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                • John Skelton

                  Originally posted by Petrushka View Post
                  the superb radio recordings box. I bought that box in the Barbican when it was ÂŁ74 and wouldn't part with it even if my life depended on it.
                  That set has the most exhilarating performance of Stravinsky's Requiem Canticles that I've heard .

                  Another favourite Haitink recording of mine is of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande. http://www.mdt.co.uk/MDTSite/product//V4923.htm

                  (I've never had the Philips Bruckner Concertgebouw set, or the studio Mahler, either on LP or CD. Come to think of it, apart from Mahler 9 I've never had any of the individual issues.)

                  Comment

                  • Alison
                    Full Member
                    • Nov 2010
                    • 6459

                    Originally posted by Il Grande Inquisitor View Post
                    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!
                    I was delighted to come across this review of BH's Scheherazade from none other than Richard Osborne !

                    Comment

                    • Barbirollians
                      Full Member
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 11709

                      That is a review though that reminds us of the brilliance of the Kletzki ! The reissue of which is desperately needed on CD .

                      Comment

                      • akiralx
                        Full Member
                        • Oct 2011
                        • 428

                        Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post
                        The Philips studio recording of Bruckner 7 is the one I found dull .
                        Which one? The standalone one from c. 1978 is generally regarded as one of the top recommendations, certainly finer than his 1960s recording which was part of his cycle.

                        Comment

                        • Colonel Danby
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 356

                          Originally posted by perfect wagnerite View Post
                          Three operatic recordings stand out for me:

                          Don Giovanni - the 1984 Glyndebourne production by Peter Hall with a top ensemble cast (Thomas Allen in the title role) and which to me has a drive and theatrical intensity that no other recording of this work matches.

                          Daphne - very beautiful, very euphonious (as you'd expect with Lucia Popp in the title role and Kurt Moll in the cast, and with the Bavarian Radio SO playing in the Herkulensaal) but the sinew holding the work together is clearly there.

                          Meistersinger - the last production before the ROH closed, with again a vintage cast in a real production, performed with a musicianship and sense of pace that Wagner often lacks.

                          If only his Ring had been recorded with that classic ROH cast, and not before he'd conducted the work in the theatre ...
                          My favourite recording by Uncle Bernie is the Bartok Bluebeard with Anne Sophie von Otter and big John Tom on EMI.

                          I did stand up for the whole Ring cycle at CovG under Haitink in the mid 90s, and then caught the lot again in Birmingham when the House was closed (commuting in from Manchester). And of course I was there for that glorious 'Meistersinger' just before the closure: I had standing tickets, but a friend offered me his stalls seat for the final act, which was good as it lasts over two hours long. And when Jeremy Isaacs got up on stage for his eulogy, I knew that I had reached Valhalla and was in the lap of the Gods.

                          And I've got from somewhere a signed programme with him conducting the Halle Orchestra in 1963 in the Free Trade Hall, three days after the CIA shot JFK. Rossini, Mozart, Debussy and Dvorak 8 were on the menu.

                          So you might say I'm a bit of a Lowtink fan...

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                          • kuligin
                            Full Member
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 231

                            Originally posted by Alison View Post
                            I was delighted to come across this review of BH's Scheherazade from none other than Richard Osborne !

                            http://www.gramophone.net/Issue/Page...9.#header-logo

                            What a brilliant review, just brings home the dreadful descent in quality of the current Gramophone, a reviewer who knows the piece inside out and is able to explain his opinion, and has made me want to hear the performance

                            Comment

                            • ferneyhoughgeliebte
                              Gone fishin'
                              • Sep 2011
                              • 30163

                              Originally posted by kuligin View Post
                              What a brilliant review, just brings home the dreadful descent in quality of the current Gramophone, a reviewer who knows the piece inside out and is able to explain his opinion, and has made me want to hear the performance


                              The "descent" typified by the "Reviski-Korsakov" typo!
                              [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

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                              • Alison
                                Full Member
                                • Nov 2010
                                • 6459

                                A full performance of DSCH 15.


                                NME brings you the latest music and pop culture news and reviews, along with videos and galleries, band features, concert tickets, magazine, radio and more.


                                An aching tenderness in places.

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