Obituary: Bernard Haitink, conductor

The great Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink has died at his home in London, aged 92. He is widely acknowledged as one of the foremost conductors of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries for his interpretations of Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Bruckner, Shostakovich and Mahler amongst other composers.

(Image credit: Chris Christodoulou)

Born in Amsterdam in 1929, Haitink trained at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and began his career as an orchestral violinist before studying conducting with Ferdinand Leitner in his mid-twenties; he made his conducting debut with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in July 1954. His first appearance with the Concertgebouw orchestra came two years later. He went on to serve as their Chief Conductor for twenty-seven years and conducted his final concerts with them in 2019.

The most significant musical directorships in Haitink’s 65-year career were at Glyndebourne (1978-88) and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (1987-2002), the Staatskapelle Dresden (2002–4), the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (2006–10) and was appointed Conductor Laureate of the European Union Youth Orchestra in 2015. Long-term relationships were forged with the London Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras. His many awards included being named an Honorary Companion of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II (2002) and Commander of the Order of the Netherlands Lion (2017).

As his years advanced, Haitink scaled back his operatic engagements but maintained a busy concert schedule until the age of 90. Radio relays of his final concerts in September 2019, which featured Bruckner’s seventh symphony, revealed that until the end Haitink was true to the core of his art: the music is all that mattered, not a showy gesture, ego or personal fanfare.

Musicians appreciated his gentle, unassuming and courteous character; that said he could reportedly be terse with colleagues if he felt they were capable of giving more to a performance. Principal flautist of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Margaret Campbell has said:

“As our Music Director Bernard was universally loved and admired. He allowed us to play. He coaxed a beautiful sound out of the strings. He trusted his players and gave soloists in the orchestra considerable freedom to express themselves, helping us along with an atmosphere of mutual respect. He had a wonderful sense of musical architecture and never lost the thread of the piece however long it was.

He was charismatic, respectful and truly inspirational. To share with him the deep emotion and indeed frivolities of the operas and ballets we played together was a tremendous privilege for all of us in the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. We count ourselves truly blessed.”

Haitink leaves behind an enviable discography of over 450 recordings. It would be hard to choose even a few of these now, but my reviews of a few recordings come to mind. Reviewing a DVD of a 1977 Glyndebourne production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni on Musicweb International, in 2005 I wrote:

“The London Philharmonic play with obvious experience of both score and house; though at times I felt the winds a little recessed. Haitink’s Mozart opera experience, as he freely admits, was at that time only beginning, and relative to later achievements this is evident. However, there is nothing that is unmusical or overtly out of place – it just lacks the depth of insight he was to achieve later on…”

Regarding Bruckner, accounts of both the sixth and the ninth symphonies stand out. Of the sixth symphony recorded live with the Staatskapelle Dresden in 2003, I wrote in Fanfare magazine:

“Haitink scales the craggy face of the Finale with surety of purpose and a clear vision of the movement’s structure. As the movement culminates with the principal theme of the first movement, a feeling of internal cohesion is reached. Haitink and his Dresden forces achieve this without undue overemphasis.”

About the ninth symphony, I wrote for Classical Ear in 2016:

“The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s history with Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony is well documented on disc. Bernard Haitink recorded it twice with them (Phillips), first in 1965, then in 1981. Of those versions, I favour the second for the stark musical architecture that Haitink inexorably builds from great blocks of granite-like sound.”

I have long enjoyed Haitink’s Wagner, including his famous 1997 account of Die Meistersinger from Glyndebourne. I recall finding his recorded Ring cycle with Eva Marton as Brunnehilde a somewhat mixed affair however, marred by some oddities of casting and a somewhat cooler approach in the pit than is often encountered. My reviews for Fanfare reflected these opinions, but re-listening to the recordings now whilst writing this I am minded to think that I was over critical in my views.

Worthy memorials though his recordings are, it was in live performances that Haitink was often – if not always – heard to his best advantage. For me, these encounters occurred most memorably at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and the BBC Proms. At these events, I observed at close quarters his lack of ostentation and economy of gesture, something other conductors could do well to take note of, I have often thought. It seems he never imposed his own ego on the music and communicated with orchestras and singers as much through eye contact as hand gestures.

He presided over some 90 BBC Proms concerts between 1966 and 2019. In the 1980s and 1990s, I heard him conduct several operas. Verdi’s La Traviata with Ileana Cotrubas in the title role from Glyndebourne in 1987 stands out not only for the integrity of the performance itself, but for the fact that Haitink remained on the podium between Acts aimiably chatting with the Promenaders below him.

At Covent Garden, I attended his final performance as Music Director in July 2002. This gala performance featured extracts from some of his favourite works: Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Verdi’s Don Carlo and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger. From my seat in a box parallel to the pit, I gave as much attention to Haitink’s conducting as the action and singing on stage. During the euphoric ovations that greeted Haitink as he took to the stage at the end of the evening, my companion that night commented, “He didn’t do much, did he?” My response I remember clearly: “Not so, he did everything that was needed – nothing more, nothing less.”

Sometimes, such as a concert of Schubert and Mozart at the 2015 BBC Proms which I reviewed for MusicOMH, I felt that:

“…the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the baton of Bernard Haitink was replete with style and good taste which pleased, yet for all that it proved rather uninvolving in an emotional sense.”

However, in summing up a performance of Shostakovich’s eighth symphony at the 2005 Proms on Musicweb International I tried to capture Haitink at his considerable best:

“Haitink paced the work superbly with a keen sense of internal dynamic and contrast. As ever, he dealt with matters straight on, pulling no punches. The five-movement structure, itself problematic as it gives the work outsize dimensions, was not smoothed over. For Haitink the middle allegro non troppo belonged more to the last two movements than the first two, and in this view I could hear his reasoning. But it still sat with difficulty amongst the whole.

In the end the work remains for me something elusive, deliberately defying easy categorisation. For the fact it time and time again leaves me provoked to ask more things of and about it, I call the work great. Haitink’s performance only increased the power and urgency of those questions: that is one function at least of great art in action.”