Bernard Haitink

Originally released in 1966, Bernard Haitink's vivid recording of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 3 in D minor is coupled here with a 1973 performance of Das klagende Lied; since these are among the least performed and least familiar works in Mahler's catalog, the pairing is mutually beneficial to each, and listeners who have neither in their collections would do well to consider snapping up this affordable set. Perhaps the only flaw should be mentioned up front: though virtually no tape hiss is audible, there is a bit of an acoustic "vacuum" around the sound of the musicians, suggesting that the analog masters have been cleaned up a bit too efficiently and some resonance seems lost.

Bernard Haitink was born and educated in Amsterdam. His conducting career began at the Netherlands Radio where in 1957 he became the Chief Conductor of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. The links between Bernard Haitink and the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra have withstood the test of time, even when his career was taking him all over the world. One fine example of this was Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust in 1998, later issued on CD (CC 72517). He returned on 15 June 2019, when he gave his very last concert in Amsterdam, with Bruckner Symphony no. 7, a work that has always been especilly dear to him.

The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks were linked by a long and intensive artistic collaboration, brought to an abrupt end by his death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and as yet unreleased live recordings of concerts from the past years. This recording of Bruckner's Fourth Symphony documents concerts from January 2012 in Munich‘s Philharmonie im Gasteig.

In honour of Bernard Haitink's 90th birthday this year, Decca presents one of the conductor's most lauded and respected series of repertoire. Bruckner's symphonic cycle is played here by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, recently voted by Gramophone Magazine as ‘The Greatest Orchestra in the World’.

An early entry in Bernard Haitink’s Shostakovich cycle, this winning performance of the Fifteenth Symphony promised much for what was eventually to become a series greatly varied in quality and inspiration. It may be asking too much for a Western conductor to perform all of these symphonies with the same intensity and passion as might be shown by any of several Soviet counterparts, who were, after all, living and working under the same system that had so oppressed and threatened the composer. As for Symphony No. 15, its lesser degree of brutality than most of its predecessors makes it a good match for Haitink’s tidy conducting style.

Eduard van Beinum's 1958 account of the Water Music captures the magnificent wind section of the Concertgebouw Orchestra at its early post-War peak, and rather than fuss over every phrase and rhythm, as so many of today's "authenticists" do, Beinum offers lively harmonic and rhythmic support while encouraging his nonpareil players to really enjoy themselves–and do they ever! Listen to the those magnificently brazen but always golden-toned horns at the opening of the Menuet (Pomposo), the brilliant trumpets in the famous Alla Hornpipe, and the soulful oboes and bassoons in their many solo turns (the oboist in the Adagio e staccato deserves a standing ovation for that movement alone).