Bernard Haitink shows he is still at the top of his game aged 90 with a live Mahler performance

Bernard Haitink

Bruckner (10 CDs)

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Mahler (12 CDs)  

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Bernard Haitink was 90 on March 4. Typically, he celebrated this milestone with yet more work; concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra in London and Paris. 

The night I went, the principal work was Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. I prepared by studying a recording of the piece Haitink made 51 years ago.

The extraordinary thing about Haitink is how young he was when he got to the top. Joint principal conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in his native Amsterdam at 32, he took over sole charge three years later, and was there for 27 years. 

At 90, conductor Bernard Haitink is still at the top of his game. He marked this milestone with glorious concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra in London and Paris 

He produced some first-class recordings, including complete sets of the symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler, while only in his 30s. These have now been remastered and reissued on Decca and make excellent listening. 

Especially the Mahler box, made even more attractive by the addition of all of Mahler’s orchestral songs, including a magnificent Song Of The Earth, with our own Janet Baker.

Haitink is an Anglophile. He spent 12 years with the London Philharmonic in the Seventies, then took on Glyndebourne, and later Covent Garden. His dedication to music here earned him an honorary knighthood and a Companion of Honour. He still lives in London.

At the recent concert, during the Dvorak concerto, memorably played by Isabelle Faust, Haitink just beat time. But the Mahler was different. 

Then Haitink stood up, his left hand supplementing his vigorous right-hand beat, with detailed gestures to the orchestra to enhance expression. If anything, this gloriously vivid and vigorous performance was even more edgy than that recording from 1968.

At 90, Bernard Haitink is still at the top of his game.

Amazing. 

OPERA NORTH’S FORTIETH 

Opera North celebrated its 40th birthday in style this month with a grand dinner at St James’s Palace, presided over by its patron, the Duke of Kent, himself a great opera devotee.

A child of English National Opera, Opera North has in many ways outgrown and outgunned its troubled parent. It gives more performances, in more places, with far less public subsidy than ENO and tours all over the north and the Midlands.

For the past 25 years, general director Richard Mantle has given the company a stability, a quality of artistic leadership and sound financial management that ENO could only dream about.

Opera North recently turned 40. A child of ENO, it has in many ways outgrown & outgunned its troubled parent. Above: Their co-production with Phoenix Dance Theatre of The Rite Of Spring

Three years ago, Opera North brought a packed Festival Hall to its feet four nights running with an acclaimed Ring cycle, wonderfully well conducted by its then music director, Richard Farnes.

These were hugely imaginative concert performances with a difference; well-chosen videos were played that complemented the drama and the excellent singing. And cleverly disposed of the great curse of modern Wagner productions – the director. More, please.

ENO hasn’t done a complete Ring cycle for 40 years.

Last season, Opera North performed its works for 150,000 people who would get little or no live opera without the company. In May it is taking Aida from its home in Leeds to Nottingham, Gateshead, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Hull and Birmingham. A tireless work rate.

Next season it will be presenting its usual pleasing blend of popular favourites in sympathetic productions such as La Bohème and The Marriage Of Figaro, plus more challenging pieces like Martinu’s The Greek Passion and Kurt Weill’s Street Scene.

So here’s to the next 40.