Bernard Haitink

For decades at the helm of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink earned acclaim as one of the leading orchestral directors of the 1900s. Audiences and critics alike admired the precision and vitality he brought to performances spanning a broad spectrum of symphonic literature, and he maintained an equally active presence in the opera house.

Born in Amsterdam on March 4, 1929, Haitink grew up with a father who directed municipal electrical services and a mother employed by the local Alliance Française. He first trained as a violinist at the Amsterdam Conservatory, supplementing those studies with introductory conducting classes. After several seasons as a violinist in the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, he shifted focus to the podium in the mid-1950s under the guidance of Ferdinand Leitner. His early appointments included the role of second conductor with the Netherlands Radio Union, during which he directed four separate ensembles before advancing to principal conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in 1957. A last-minute substitution for the indisposed Carlo Maria Giulini with the Concertgebouw Orchestra quickly led to repeated guest engagements and, in 1961, to Haitink's appointment as principal conductor, initially shared with Eugen Jochum and then held solely from 1963 onward.

Throughout the later years of the LP era and well into the compact-disc and digital periods, Philips, followed by Decca and EMI, regularly issued Haitink's recordings of orchestral and concerto repertoire with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. From 1967 to 1979 he simultaneously served as music director of the London Philharmonic, producing numerous discs with that ensemble as well. Although his discography centered on nineteenth-century Romantic works, it also encompassed Mozart and extended into the twentieth century, embracing such varied figures as Ravel, Shostakovich, and Vaughan Williams. In the expansive scores of Wagner and Bruckner, his command and exactitude remained unmatched. While resident in Britain, Haitink pursued an extensive operatic career, serving as music director of the Glyndebourne Festival from 1977 to 1988 and of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 1987 to 2002; both positions yielded recordings of French and German opera. Frustrated by governmental funding reductions, he stepped down from the Concertgebouw post in 1988, yet reconciled with the orchestra several years later and continued appearing with it until shortly before his retirement in 2019. He also maintained a wide guest-conducting schedule that encompassed the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony, where he held the title of principal guest conductor. This activity persisted across multiple decades even after he reached senior-citizen age, both in the Netherlands and abroad.

Haitink's catalog ultimately surpassed 450 releases. He remained in the studio well into his eighties, completing a new recording of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125 ("Choral") with the Sinfonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in 2019, only days before his ninetieth birthday. That same year he declared his retirement, concluding his Proms appearances in London with the Vienna Philharmonic on September 3, 2019—his ninetieth such engagement. Three days afterward he led the same orchestra for the final time, in Lucerne, Switzerland. Fresh issues and reissues of his performances continued without interruption; a live document of his last Amsterdam concert, featuring Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, appeared only days before his death at his London home on October 21, 2021. Among his honors were an honorary British knighthood and membership in the House Order of Orange-Nassau, conferred by the Dutch queen.