Bernard Haitink (1929-2021)

[Belgrove]

Yesterday at Glyndebourne, Gus Christie dedicated the performance of The Rake’s Progress to the memory of Bernard Haitink, who conducted the first performances of the evergreen Cox/Hockney production way back in 1975. No finer way to celebrate a great musician than with great music making.

[underthecountertenor]

France Musique has already broadcast three separate tribute programmes: a one hour segment on Friday afternoon (a selection of commercial recordings); a two hour programme on Saturday morning concentrating on his work with the Orchestra National de France (mainly concert broadcasts, with a couple of videos on the web page); and a 2 hour homage this morning (Sunday), with, on the web page, a complete filmed Bruckner 9 with the ONF from February 2015. Quite a treasure trove.

[BBMmk2]

So many happy memories that Haitink has given me. So very grateful. RIP

[gurnemanz]

I first experienced BH at close quarters from the Proms Arena late 60s but not again until 2015 at the Barbican in Mahler 1, also Alina Ibragimova playing Mozart's 3rd Concerto. A rather long gap and so glad we made the effort to get there.

[Petrushka]

One of the most memorable Haitink concerts I attended was the Berliner Philharmoniker's 1993 Europa Concert given in the Royal Albert Hall.

Due the the time difference and as it was being being broadcast live throughout Europe (though not in the UK naturally), the concert began at 10 o'clock on that Saturday morning. Not usually the sort of time or day I'd be sitting in the RAH for a concert but it was superb. The programme was Tchaikovsky R&J, Mozart VC 3 (with Frank Peter Zimmermann) and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. BBC cameras were used yet it's never been broadcast by them. However, it's available on DVD and very good it is too..

[bluestateprommer]

de Volksrant has a tribute from Merlijn Kerkhof (well worth using Google Translator, especially to learn about the opening story of BH conducting Mahler 2 in Rotterdam in 1990, not long after his departure from the KCO):

https://www.volkskrant.nl/mensen/bernard-haitink-de-dirigent-eenvoudige-gebaren-magnetische-uitstraling~bf9eedef/

It also confirms Hannah French's mention on the R3 / Wigmore Hall concert by Camerata RCO that Haitink was indeed there:

"Violist Marc Daniel van Biemen (35) trof Haitink vorige maand nog toen de dirigent in het publiek zat in de Londense Wigmore Hall bij een optreden van Camerata RCO, een ensemble van Concertgebouworkestleden. ‘Toen we hem zagen, hadden we wel iets van: oei, dit kan niet lang meer duren’, zegt Van Biemen. ‘We waren vereerd dat hij er was. Ik keek af en toe de zaal in, dan zag ik hem glimlachen.’"

('Violinist Marc Daniel van Biemen (35) met Haitink last month when the conductor was in the audience in London's Wigmore Hall at a performance by Camerata RCO, an ensemble of Concertgebouw orchestra members. "When we saw him, we were like: oh, this can't last long," says Van Biemen. "We were honored to have him there. I occasionally looked into the room, then I saw him smile."')

Wigmore Hall posted on their Twitter feed about BH being something of a WH regular:

"Like the entire music world, we are deeply saddened to hear of the death of conductor Bernard Haitink. He was a regular audience member and attended concerts at the hall several times in the past weeks."

Hannah French posted on her Twitter feed:

"He was also in the audience at @wigmore_hall just the other week enjoying Brahms’s first Serenade & taking selfies with @CamerataRCO. Somehow a fitting last image."

One such picture is on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CVTkOlIoEEs/

RF mentioned the Chicago SO concert with Mahler 1. I may have been at that same series of 2008 (or so) concerts, which also had Ravel's Menuet antique and Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs (with Kelley O'Connor), if memory serves. The one quirk was that BH had the entire double bass section performing the opening to the 3rd movement of the Mahler, reflecting the Sander Wilkens (enabled by Reinhold Kubik) gaffe about that edition of Mahler 1 (but that's an whole 'nother story, not suitable for this thread).

Had the privilege of seeing Haitink conducted the Chicago SO several times, and separately on jaunts to NYC one concert with the Boston Symphony and another with the LSO, and back in 1997 at the Musikverein with the Vienna Philharmonic. Unfortunately, never saw him conduct the KCO live; the closest that I ever got was hearing a chamber concert in the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw as BH was holding court with the KCO in the Grote Zaal next door.

[richardfinegold]

de Volksrant has a tribute from Merlijn Kerkhof (well worth using Google Translator, especially to learn about the opening story of BH conducting Mahler 2 in Rotterdam in 1990, not long after his departure from the KCO):

https://www.volkskrant.nl/mensen/bernard-haitink-de-dirigent-eenvoudige-gebaren-magnetische-uitstraling~bf9eedef/

It also confirms Hannah French's mention on the R3 / Wigmore Hall concert by Camerata RCO that Haitink was indeed there:



Wigmore Hall posted on their Twitter feed about BH being something of a WH regular:



Hannah French posted on her Twitter feed:



One such picture is on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CVTkOlIoEEs/

RF mentioned the Chicago SO concert with Mahler 1. I may have been at that same series of 2008 (or so) concerts, which also had Ravel's Menuet antique and Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs (with Kelley O'Connor), if memory serves. The one quirk was that BH had the entire double bass section performing the opening to the 3rd movement of the Mahler, reflecting the Sander Wilkens (enabled by Reinhold Kubik) gaffe about that edition of Mahler 1 (but that's an whole 'nother story, not suitable for this thread).

Had the privilege of seeing Haitink conducted the Chicago SO several times, and separately on jaunts to NYC one concert with the Boston Symphony and another with the LSO, and back in 1997 at the Musikverein with the Vienna Philharmonic. Unfortunately, never saw him conduct the KCO live; the closest that I ever got was hearing a chamber concert in the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw as BH was holding court with the KCO in the Grote Zaal next door.

I remember hearing the Neruda Songs, but had forgotten that was the same concert as the Mahler 1. What a concert that was. I didn’t even care about the full complement of double basses

[richardfinegold]

So a perusal of BH discography reveals no Sibelius; virtually no Rachmaninov (as an accompaniment to Azhkenazy in PCs) and very little Prokofiev. Did he perform these composers in Concerts? He was known for having a wide repertoire.
Personally I could have cut off his Bruckner Seven count at 4 and would have loved to have heard him in Sibelius 4/5

[Petrushka]

So a perusal of BH discography reveals no Sibelius; virtually no Rachmaninov (as an accompaniment to Azhkenazy in PCs) and very little Prokofiev. Did he perform these composers in Concerts? He was known for having a wide repertoire.
Personally I could have cut off his Bruckner Seven count at 4 and would have loved to have heard him in Sibelius 4/5

The Concertgebouw concert archive reveals that Haitink performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto, The Swan of Tuonela and Symphonies 2 & 5; the Prokofiev concertos, Romeo & Juliet suites and Alexander Nevsky; the Rachmaninov Piano Concertos and Paganini Rhapsody. The VPO concert archive yields just the Sibelius Violin Concerto.

Haitink did once say that the Scandinavian composers didn't really speak to him and he was happy to let others do them.

So far as Haitink's discography is concerned the really sad omission is that there are no Mozart symphonies at all apart from the 38th which appears on the Profil label with the Dresden Staatskapelle. He performed Mozart often in the concert hall, both concertos and symphonies, so it's difficult to understand why he never committed any to disc. Much the same goes for the Haydn symphonies. There are only 96 and 99 on disc from the 1960s yet he performed them frequently.

A bit of searching on youTube will yield some of the Haydn and Mozart performances he gave but the lack of them in his discography is immensely sad especially as they were always so elegant and stylish in concert as I can testify.

[alywin]

The evening after his death was announced was a Royal Ballet evening at the Royal Opera House, but the ballet's Director, Kevin O'Hare, came onstage before curtain-up (it was Romeo & Juliet) and dedicated the evening's performance to Haitink, who had conducted the ballet there back in the late 1980s. It was just before I started attending, but I have very good memories of him conducting Daphnis and Chloe there a few years later.

He will be very sorely missed, but I give thanks for his long life and all the music-making it allowed.

[Darkbloom]

The Concertgebouw concert archive reveals that Haitink performed the Sibelius Violin Concerto, The Swan of Tuonela and Symphonies 2 & 5; the Prokofiev concertos, Romeo & Juliet suites and Alexander Nevsky; the Rachmaninov Piano Concertos and Paganini Rhapsody. The VPO concert archive yields just the Sibelius Violin Concerto.

Haitink did once say that the Scandinavian composers didn't really speak to him and he was happy to let others do them.

So far as Haitink's discography is concerned the really sad omission is that there are no Mozart symphonies at all apart from the 38th which appears on the Profil label with the Dresden Staatskapelle. He performed Mozart often in the concert hall, both concertos and symphonies, so it's difficult to understand why he never committed any to disc. Much the same goes for the Haydn symphonies. There are only 96 and 99 on disc from the 1960s yet he performed them frequently.

A bit of searching on youTube will yield some of the Haydn and Mozart performances he gave but the lack of them in his discography is immensely sad especially as they were always so elegant and stylish in concert as I can testify.

To have recorded all the VW and DSCH symphonies but virtually no Mozart or Haydn is astonishing. You almost always had a Bruckner symphony (or Mahler 4) in concert paired with something by one or the other.

[gurnemanz]

To have recorded all the VW and DSCH symphonies but virtually no Mozart or Haydn is astonishing. You almost always had a Bruckner symphony (or Mahler 4) in concert paired with something by one or the other.

Just checked. Those VW and DSCH symphonies constitute 18 of the 33 Haitink CDs in my collection. The rest are Beethoven, Britten (Peter Grimes), Stravinsky, Liszt, Debussy, Mahler. His 1967 Concertgebouw Mahler 4th with Elly Ameling was my first evcer CD, bought on the same day I bought my first CD player.

[cloughie]

To have recorded all the VW and DSCH symphonies but virtually no Mozart or Haydn is astonishing. You almost always had a Bruckner symphony (or Mahler 4) in concert paired with something by one or the other.

We can only wonder what a Rach Sym 2 would have sounded like - I think I’ve said the same of Karajan in the past.

[Petrushka]

To have recorded all the VW and DSCH symphonies but virtually no Mozart or Haydn is astonishing. You almost always had a Bruckner symphony (or Mahler 4) in concert paired with something by one or the other.

The Concertgebouw recorded a very fine Mozart set for Philips with Josef Krips, and had already made some with Jochum, so one can only assume that the record company felt that any from Haitink would have been superfluous though why Haitink wasn't chosen for the Krips sessions is puzzling and, for me at least, constitutes a major disappointment.

There are two Mozart piano recordings (Nos 24 & 27) from Haitink in the RCO125 box and No 24 also exists in a live LPO recording on BBC Legends with Curzon but again Philips were recording the set with Brendel and Marriner and also had those made by Haebler/Davis so didn't, at the time perhaps, feel the need for anything with Haitink.

Yet again with Haydn. Philips made excellent discs with the Concertgebouw and Colin Davis of the 'London' symphonies and they had Haitink pigeonholed as a Mahler/Bruckner conductor but why wasn't Haitink considered for these? He may have ruled himself out for whatever reason but it's still a major disappointment and all we can do is access live recordings where they exist.

Just had an additional thought that RCO Live could usefully fill the gap by issuing a CD set of Mozart and Haydn from the Netherlands Radio recordings. There should be enough of them.

[richardfinegold]

The Concertgebouw recorded a very fine Mozart set for Philips with Josef Krips, and had already made some with Jochum, so one can only assume that the record company felt that any from Haitink would have been superfluous though why Haitink wasn't chosen for the Krips sessions is puzzling and, for me at least, constitutes a major disappointment.

There are two Mozart piano recordings (Nos 24 & 27) from Haitink in the RCO125 box and No 24 also exists in a live LPO recording on BBC Legends with Curzon but again Philips were recording the set with Brendel and Marriner and also had those made by Haebler/Davis so didn't, at the time perhaps, feel the need for anything with Haitink.

Yet again with Haydn. Philips made excellent discs with the Concertgebouw and Colin Davis of the 'London' symphonies and they had Haitink pigeonholed as a Mahler/Bruckner conductor but why wasn't Haitink considered for these? He may have ruled himself out for whatever reason but it's still a major disappointment and all we can do is access live recordings where they exist.

BH recorded for Decca long after he left Amsterdam, and Phillips and Decca weren’t in the same conglomerate in those days, so he had plenty of time to record Mozart had he wished. I think there are nine Bruckner Sevenths, multiple Mahler 3s, etc. it would have been nice to skip some of these remakes and hit some parts of the repertoire that he didn’t visit. I understand that his Mozart Opera recordings were quite good so it was an opportunity missed to not do the symphonies.
As for his apparent dislike of Sibelius, I find that strange from an avowed Brucknerian. Sibelius openly acknowledged his debt to Bruckner, and BH recorded all of the Vaughn Williams Symphonies, and RVW admired Sibelius. Oh well, more opportunities missed