Bernard Haitink (1929-2021)

[Darkbloom]

I thought he was an outstanding director of music at the Royal Opera . It was evident from a BBC Two documentary that he often had to cope with productions that he was not entirely in sympathy with and handled it all with good grace and a kind of rueful humour - a consummate professional .I remember an outstanding Meistersinger in the 90’s - the brass blaze at the start of Act 3 bought tears to the eyes - how he could shape a phrase. Also a magnificent Ring Cycle . I went to his farewell gala where he was presented with a Vespa style motorcycle. The warmth towards him from audience , cast and orchestra was palpable.

I was there that night too. John Tom riding the scooter onstage tooting the Nibelung motif. We're entitled to feel a little sad at the moment but I prefer to reflect on the wonderful memories he has left us with. He never said much because he didn't need to and his music-making spoke for itself. When he conducted the ROH orchestra he produced sounds I have never heard before, an incredible range of colours.

We always loved to see him walk diffidently to the rostrum, and we always loved cheering him vociferously, even though we knew it embarrassed him. RIP.

[Edgy 2]

So sad, he seemed to have been around forever.
Thank you Uncle Bernie for the wonderful treasured Vaughan Williams cycle and Walton 1, Elgar and Shostakovich

RIP

[LHC]

I was there that night too. John Tom riding the scooter onstage tooting the Nibelung motif. We're entitled to feel a little sad at the moment but I prefer to reflect on the wonderful memories he has left us with. He never said much because he didn't need to and his music-making spoke for itself. When he conducted the ROH orchestra he produced sounds I have never heard before, an incredible range of colours.

We always loved to see him walk diffidently to the rostrum, and we always loved cheering him vociferously, even though we knew it embarrassed him. RIP.

There is a lovely tribute from a fellow conductor on Lebrecht’s website which illustrates the effect he had on orchestras:

Conductor Josh Weilerstein:

I’ll never forget watching Bernard Haitink transform the sound of the New York Philharmonic in the span of about 4 minutes during a rehearsal of Bruckner 7. It was his first time back with the orchestra since the late 70s, and without saying a word other than “good morning,” the orchestra in his hands suddenly acquired a luminous glow that I had never heard before. Over the course of the next 90 minutes, he probably said no more than a few sentences, but it was as if the elusive magic of Bruckner’s music was being revealed more and more every minute.

A bit stunned, I went up to the podium at the break and essentially asked him if there was any secret behind the transformation I had just witnessed. He looked at me, smiled, and sheepishly said, “oh it’s just autopilot for me at this point.” I would later learn that Haitink’s modesty and humility in the face of admittedly silly questions like mine was legendary. It’s a very tired cliché to say that someone served the music, but Haitink was perhaps the best example of that mantra, with his never ending search for more and more depth in the music he conducted.

But beyond his musical legacy, he was a profoundly warm-hearted person who was always willing to speak with and to help younger musicians, all in his inimitable direct and yet kind way

And this from Isobel Buchanan:

I have wonderful memories of Bernard Haitink from Glyndebourne days where I sang Pamina and La Contessa with him. He was definitely a ‘singer’s conductor’ who breathed every phrase and whose eyes hardly left the stage during the big set pieces. As a performer, one felt tremendously supported. He had a great sense of fun too and loved joining in the after rehearsal get togethers.

I remember a sensitive, kind and brilliant man whose legacy to music has been better expressed by others elsewhere.

[CallMePaul]

I only saw Haitink conduct once - a Prom in which he conducted a fine performance of Mahler 5 (BBCSO - can't remember the first half programme) but I have a wide selection of his recorded legacy. One recording that hardly ever seems to be mentioned is his Sheherazade with the LPO. I bought this on LP not long after its release and have always considered it one of the finest recordings available. I am disappointed to see that it is now only on Presto CD, which suggests that there are no plans for its wider re-release. It was on Presto that I first read the news of his passing.
RIP Bernard

[Nick Armstrong]

So many treasured musical memories.



(Thank you for post #33, LHC)

[gradus]

So many treasured musical memories.



(Thank you for post #33, LHC)

A truly great musician. RIP Bernard.

[makropulos]

In common with everybody else posting on this thread, my Haitink experiences were many and wonderful, starting with the Proms –Symphony fantastique with the Concertgebouw in 1970 (I think) with the most enormous bells in the last movement –they looked like giant cowbells. Then Mahler 3 in 1971, a superb Vaughan Williams 4th at the Festival Hall in about 1973, several Bruckner performances in the later 70s and numerous splendid nights in the theatre and opera house (I was reminiscing about the Glyndebourne Love of Three Oranges earlier this week and I loved his Glyndebourne Figaro), Meistersinger, Jenufa and other things at the ROH and so on. What a glorious, selfless and inspiring musician he was. As for his recordings, I suppose my favourites aside from the many Bruckner and Mahler discs would be his Debussy and Ravel (both utterly magical), some of his RVW and Shostakovich cycles, a wonderfully vital Petrushka... but there's plenty more of course. Goodness, what extraordinary and lasting delights he brought us, and what a loss he is –though since he made it to 92, I feel more inclined to celebrate an exceptionally long and rich life. RIP Bernard Haitink.

[Barbirollians]

I only saw Haitink conduct once - a Prom in which he conducted a fine performance of Mahler 5 (BBCSO - can't remember the first half programme) but I have a wide selection of his recorded legacy. One recording that hardly ever seems to be mentioned is his Sheherazade with the LPO. I bought this on LP not long after its release and have always considered it one of the finest recordings available. I am disappointed to see that it is now only on Presto CD, which suggests that there are no plans for its wider re-release. It was on Presto that I first read the news of his passing.
RIP Bernard

Yes a very fine recording and is there not the story that he scheduled it being aware that Rodney Friend was a bit disappointed he had recorded Heldenleben with theConcertgebouw?

[Petrushka]

People here might be interested in a bundle of live Haitink recordings made available from the Netherlands Radio archive. More might well appear in due course.

https://www.nporadio4.nl/concerten

[silvestrione]

What wonderful tributes. I first heard him with the LPO in an exhilarating Dvorak 8 at the Fairfield Hall in Croydon, in 1969 or 70.

Later, I remember Die Meistersinger, Jenufa, and didn't he do Tippett's Midsummer Marriage at ROH too?

[richardfinegold]

I think I’ve told this story here a few times, but he was doing a Mahler 1 here in Chicago about 15 years ago. I had never been so galvanized as a listener, hearing that familiar work with all of it variety and color so thrillingly laid out. In IV there is a long diminuendo leading into the final climactic sequence. BH seeemed to be tuning the orchestra to successively levels of decreasing sound, and suddenly an audience member had a spasm of coughing. BH quickly turned to the audience and made a furious “STOP “ slice with the baton which produced the desired effect. Would that I could control my patients symptoms as successfully. The Orchestra played right through and the magic continued. I will never forget it

[Keraulophone]

.
So many memories from Covent Garden, Glyndebourne and the Proms (eg Mahler 3 with the Philharmonia). Visiting the local record library in my early teens and never having heard a Brahms symphony, I thought I’d see whether No.1 was any good! That Haitink/Concertgebouw LP held me spellbound, playing it over and over, and later the other three. The Concertgebouw played Knopf horns in the early ‘70s, which can also be heard to great effect on their Heldenleben LP of 1970 (‘A Hero’s Life’ on the cover), still a favourite recording, which led to a lifetime’s love of Richard Strauss.

Thank you Bernard Haitink for so enriching our musical lives and leaving us a timeless legacy.

R.I.P.

[Bryn]

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?16961-What-Classical-Music-Are-You-listening-to-Now-III&p=863962#post863962

[Darkbloom]

I think I’ve told this story here a few times, but he was doing a Mahler 1 here in Chicago about 15 years ago. I had never been so galvanized as a listener, hearing that familiar work with all of it variety and color so thrillingly laid out. In IV there is a long diminuendo leading into the final climactic sequence. BH seeemed to be tuning the orchestra to successively levels of decreasing sound, and suddenly an audience member had a spasm of coughing. BH quickly turned to the audience and made a furious “STOP “ slice with the baton which produced the desired effect. Would that I could control my patients symptoms as successfully. The Orchestra played right through and the magic continued. I will never forget it

The only time I ever heard him address the audience was after a performance of Gotterdammerung when the Government was threatening to cut the ROH's funding. BH was always a man of few words and this was no exception, but what struck me was how he could silence a wildly cheering audience by simply raising his hand. The effect was instantaneous. He wasn't charismatic in the traditional sense; it was a quiet authority he used sparingly but to great effect.

[bluestateprommer]

More tributes:
a) Extended article from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
b) Netherlands Radio Philharmonic
c) LPO
d) Glyndebourne
e) Boston Symphony Orchestra
f) Berlin Philharmonic
g) Staatskapelle Dresden

Press write-ups:
1) Full obit from The Guardian
2) Andrew Clements, The Guardian
3) David Allen, The New York Times

Additional articles:
i) Volkmar Fischer, Bavarian Radio
ii) Lawrence A. Johnson, Chicago Classical Review