Bernard Haitink - the last remaining 'grand master’?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I am aghast that there are cymbals and a triangle used in a Bruckner symphony!!

Well - they've always been there in (every version of) the Eighth, Bbm. (And in most performances & recordings of the Seventh of the last century.)

[Once Was 4]

I am aghast that there are cymbals and a triangle used in a Bruckner symphony!!

Sorry to lower the tone of this conversation yet again: but it reminds me of a tour including Berlioz's 'Damnation of Faust' - not an opera of course but performed as part of the tour with the orchestra in the pit and singers on stage. Most people who knew me would agree that, whatever they thought of the way that I played the notes, I usually managed to put them in the right places. One evening I crashed in a bar too early in the hunting scene. The conductor made no 'to do' about it - just held up his hand, gave me a queue in the right place and then seemingly forgot about it - no glares, mouthings of obscenities etc. I then found myself standing next to him in the Gents so had to say something "Monsieur Chaslin, I am really sorry about that, I am not sure what happened!" Now he usually spoke impeccable English but he turned to me, winked, put on a real 'Inspector Clouseau' accent and said "You know, when I was ze pianist with ze Orchest de Paris, we took a percussionist to Osaka in Japan to strike the cymbals once - and he missed it!" and, with another wink, he washed his hands and left. Good psychology - I made sure it never happened again. Was that Bruckner 7?

[Beef Oven!]

I am aghast that there are cymbals and a triangle used in a Bruckner symphony!!

Don’t worry BBM, if you listen carefully, you can’t hear the triangle.

[ahinton]

I am aghast that there are cymbals and a triangle used in a Bruckner symphony!!

What might you suppose Liszt would have thought about that?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Don’t worry BBM, if you listen carefully, you can’t hear the triangle.

[BBMmk2]

Don’t worry BBM, if you listen carefully, you can’t hear the triangle.

Well must be my hearing then :) I must get back to No.7 & 8 adagios!

[Petrushka]

A fresh tranche of live Dutch radio recordings of Haitink have just appeared on the Dutch Radio 4 website:

http://www.radio4.nl/persoon/77/haitink-bernard

Some have been on before but all are worth hearing. Included is the Bruckner 5 from May 18 2012 with the Concertgebouw given two days before they gave it in the Barbican. That performance had an interesting tale which I don't think I've told on here before.

A couple of days before that Barbican concert the box office rang me to say that Princess Maxima and Prince Willem of the Netherlands (now King and Queen) wished to attend the performance, would I mind giving up my seat and be offered an alternative? As I'd booked a year in advance yes I jolly well would mind but in the end I caved in and the alternative seat was actually very good. So my claim to fame is that I've been booted out of my seat by the Dutch King and Queen!

[Alison]

No cash adjustment Pet? Hope they were grateful.

[Petrushka]

No cash adjustment Pet? Hope they were grateful.

No, the alternative seat was in the same price range and I was happy enough in all honesty. I was so close to the Prince and Princess I could have tripped them up

Dutch relatives of a friend of mine have never seen them let alone been kicked out of their seat by them!

[Beef Oven!]

Alison, I succumbed and bought a Presto download of uncle Bernie’s LPO live Don Juan. Wonderful it is! That build up passage to the horn-call signifying Don getting his nuts in, is soo delicate that Nicholas Busch’s entry (fna, fna) is all the more dramatic. Excellent stuff. Thanks for the recommendation, I shouldn’t have dithered.

[Alison]

Ah that's great Beefy. Is there a more glorious sound than those LPO horns when on top form?? I'd have that in my top half dozen or so Bernie recordings.

[Beef Oven!]

Ah that's great Beefy. Is there a more glorious sound than those LPO horns when on top form?? I'd have that in my top half dozen or so Bernie recordings.

I’m getting the hang of Bernie.

With this Don Juan, I think you have to crank the volume up and get all the subtle, unforceful detail and smooth orchestral timbre that Bernie focuses on. It’s easy to miss how he gets every nuance of the music without being demonstrative - then Bam! the climax, whether it be a huge LPO brass call or crescendo, is there, almost from nowhere, but never bombastic, just so.

[Alison]

Spot on Oven.

I don't know the Karajan recording(s) but even Tennstedt can't match Bernie here and certainly not Solti or Abbado.

Can't recall Mr Petrushka enthusing over this disc. Must be on his big stack of unplayeds!

[Petrushka]

Spot on Oven.

I don't know the Karajan recording(s) but even Tennstedt can't match Bernie here and certainly not Solti or Abbado.

Can't recall Mr Petrushka enthusing over this disc. Must be on his big stack of unplayeds!

Yes, I have that disc, Alison, as I was present at the Heldenleben performance that's on the same CD. I'll listen again to Don Juan and take BeefO's advice to crank up the volume!

Beefy's comments about Haitink's methods here apply to much of what he does.

[richardfinegold]

My Mahler 3 with the Bavarian Radio SO just arrived. I also ordered Haitink's CSO Resound Mahler 1 in the same shipment from Presto.
I've listened to both of them once and so impressions are preliminary. The M1, however bowled me over. I was present at one of the Concerts that was used for the recording and it was one of my most memorable. Sometimes when I hear a recording taken from a memorable concert I am disappointed, as somehow the magic can't be recreated, but this record kept me enthralled. Haitink has such a firm grasp of the architecture of these large symphonic canvases. The repeated themes gain such cumulative power , and the irony seems to make it's point by understatement (compared to an 'overstater' such as Bernstein. Marvelous.