Bernard Haitink (1929-2021)

[André]

I prefer Perahia's take on the concertos to Arrau's, both with the RCOA and Haitink. There is a spring in Perahia's step as well as a sense of colour that find Arrau limited to more severe, darker hues and more rigid musical lines. Haitink, too, is more attuned to the fantasy element and the quintessential beethovenian mood of putting himself out there.

Tempi are slightly more alert, balances more transparent, with more prominent winds and plangent strings. The recordings are beautifully balanced, the sound transparent and rich. A top shel integral set.

In detail:
- concerto no 1: One of the set's best entries. 9.5/10
- concerto no 2: 8/10
- concerto no 3: strong and full of sinew. 9/10
- concerto no 4: a thing of beauty, grace and unostentatious rectitude. 10/10
- concerto no 5: I liked it a lot more than some critics (Musicweb). Can't find any fault in either the pianist's or the orchestra's response. 9/10 (because I'm partial to a couple other recordings).

[André]

This 1970 recording established Haitink's credentials as a straussian of the first order and confirmed the COA's recent rise to pre-eminence among european orchestras. There's no doubt it's a splendid interpretation from all concerned, not least the orchestra's concertmaster, Herman Krebbers. His otherworldly sweet tone instantly rises the emotional temperature of the music by a couple of degrees. The purely orchestral sections (without the solo violin) are wonderfully confident and assured. The horn section is brilliant, the strings plangent and firm of tone. 9/10



Recorded 15 years later, this performance of the Alpine Symphony has achieved cult status, not only for the unerring way Haitink characterizes each section, but especially for the orchestra's virtuosic execution. It's all that, and more. Strauss' mammoth score is not just a series of orchestral vignettes, it's a perfectly balanced orchestral narrative in which continuity is never lost - much better in that regard than Zarathustra or even Heldenleben, for example. Very few other versions are as good as this (Mehta with the BP maybe ?) but none are as well recorded. The sound is rock solid, never threatening to spread out, peak or lose focus. A classic. 10/10

[André]

Haitink I, the 1965 recording.

For a very long time I have not rally responded to this interpretation of the 9th. One cause was the accelerations at turbulent, fortissimo passages in the first movement, which I found disconcerting. It was not germane to my view of this movement as a monumental, craggy, olympian orchestral edifice. Jochum was guilty of the same fault and a few others as well.

I preferred the stoic firmness of Klemperer with the New Philharmonia, the tyrannosaurian inexorability of Mehta's WP performance or the implacable, brutal assault of Karajan with the BP. Whether slow (Klemp, Mehta) or fastish (HvK), they were granitically stable in their chosen speeds. Over time I have warmed up to Walter's equally volatile way with those huge climaxes. Which led me to re appreciate Haitink (Jochum still sounds way too volatile for me in those particular spots).

These conductors (Walter, Haitink I, Jochum) see these big, burly, tempestuous episodes as climactic developments of the ominous, stately eruptions that eventually calm out, followed by the beseeching gesansperioden that are so characteristic of that movement. It's a very complex movement and I suppose that introducing this element of turmoil, of maximum agitation at the nodal points of the development is a way to balance the structure, with its alternance of eruptions and calmness. It also makes the sheer size of the coda a kind of natural resolution to all the turbulence of the movement.

Another nit I picked with Haitink's conception was the hulking, massive gait he chose for the scherzo. I was used to Karajan's and Mehta's brutal, demonic way with this section and found the result slightly anticlimactic. The Trio is suitably fleet and breezy. The Adagio is perfectly balanced in its mix of heroism, aspiration to calm and anxious, vociferous attempt at annihilation.

Like I said, over time (and after having listened to all kinds of interpretations - some 50-75 of them ?), Haitink's honest, well-reasoned and unvarnished take on the work has made its way slowly toward the top of second tier interpretations. I'm not overly fond of the trend to ever slower, lumbering, ungainly interpretations (Giulini WP, Bernstein WP, Celibidache, Davis LSO). They need to have special qualities to justify the extra weight and length they impose on this massive, demanding score. Haitink by comparison sounds quite reasonable, first movement accelerations and weighty scherzo included.

One thing I ought to mention: I've never heard this particular recording sound so open, brilliant and solid as in this remastering. The improvement is spectacular. 9/10