Bernard Haitink's valedictory 90th Prom, Royal Albert Hall

Bernard Haitink's farewell to the Proms  -photo credit Peter Le Tissier

Bernard Haitink's 90th Prom and his official farewell to London, conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with Emmanuel Ax in Beethoven Piano Concerto no 4 op 58 and Bruckner Symphony no 7. Haitink did the same programme in Salzburg on Saturday (still avalable here on Takt1).  On Friday, he conducted it again from Lucerne Festival (audio only link on NPO Radio 4)   The programmes might be identical but the emotional experience was so strong it din't matter in the least.. I've been listening over and over this week, can't bear to stop. Words aren't sufficient to express the intense feelings Haitink's farewell awakes.  For many of us there never was a time when Haitink wasn't a presence in our listening lives. Some of us can remember when he was young !  My heart tore, as he walked off the Royal Albert Hall stage, gently accompanied by the Leader of the Wiener Philharmoniker.  There went a giant, though he looked so old and frail.

And yet the musicianship was as powerful, and personal as ever.  Such fluidity and poise, such elegance and emotional depth.  Bruckner shone : as if infused by the composer's faith in life as much as in God.  Such freedom of spirit and energy !  Please read Colin Stuart Clarke's review here on Robert Hugill's blog, it's beautifull written).

Haitink conducts favourite pieces over and over again, always looking for some new insight, some new way of engaging with the composer and the work. That's what true artists do. As Mahler said "The music lies not only in the notes". The differences might be imperceptible, but every performance is individual. Just as we all change day by day without hardly being aware, performance is a form of connecting to life and to the creative power that is music. Earlier this year, in Munich, Haitink was so unwell that he only conducted the second half of the programme, Beethoven 9, which he could probably conduct in his sleep, but Haitink does not do autopilot..  Tired as he looked, once the music got going,  it seemed to invigorate  him with renewed energy : the flow of the music like the flow of life through one's veins.  (Please read more about that here).

In March at the Barbican London, he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, with which he has been associated for decades, in two concerts - Mozart Piano Concerto no 22 with Till Fellner, and Bruckner Symphony no 4. (Please read my review here) and  Dvořák Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 (B.108),with Isabelle Faust and Gustav Mahler Symphony no 4. (Please read more about that here). This last Prom at the Royal Albert Hall was valedictory - his 90th Proms appearance, probably a record of some kind for a non BBC conductor.  Memories of past Haitink Proms flooded back, indelibly etched in the memory.  Please scroll down to the label "Haitink" below for other performances).  He's conducted the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam 1500 times, and many times the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic orchestra, where he began conducting way back in 1954, to which he returned when he could.  And of course, Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Lucerne, Salzburg and so much else !  In London, we've been extraordinarily lucky to have had him as Chief of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1967-79), a frequent and much loved guest at the London Symphony Orchestra, with the Glyndebourne Festival Orchestra from 1978, (where he was spotted in the audience this summer) and at the Royal Opera House. I remember the world's slowest Parsifal - but it worked, since the Grail Comminity is semi comatose part of the time.  the world will not be quite the same without Haitink's understated brilliance and depth.

Haitink at 90 - Dvořák. Mahler 4, LSO Barbican

Bernard Haitink, Isabelle Faust, London Symphony Orchestra   photo: Roger Thomas

 Bernard Haitink and the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, marking the conductor's 90th birthday, and his long association with the LSO and with London. This second concert featured Antonín Dvořák Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 (B.108),with Isabelle Faust with Gustav Mahler Symphony no 4 in G major.  Good companions ! Dvořák's Violin Concerto isn't a typical concerto, flowing almost like a series of variations.  But then Mahler's Symphony no 4 isn't typical either, progressing towards a final movement built on a song.  How well these two pieces work together, enhancing each other! This programme was as thoughtfully constructed as Sunday's concert with Mozart Piano Concerto with Till Fellner and Bruckner Symphony no 4  (Please read more here).

A superb Dvořák Violin Concerto, the orchestra alive from the first downstroke, from which the main theme quickly materialized. Here the effect was almost magical, the high, bright timbre of Faust's violin singing like a spirit of nature. Faust was playing with a freedom that imbued the piece with youthful freshness and vigour. More connections between the concerto and the symphony in which a child sings of heavenly pleasures.  Energetic rhythms contrast with lyrical, song-like lines, suggestions of folk dance adding pastoral flavour. I blissed out.

This Dvořák served as an overture for Mahler's Symphony no 4 setting the context.  Haitink proceeded with gusto, capturing the energy in the first movement.  Though sleigh bells feature prominently, this isn't a literal depiction of a sleigh in a wintry landscape.  Rather it is a metaphor for life. The sleigh bells aren't there just as folksy decoration.  A sleigh ride is a journey with a destination.  No cars in Mahler's time, so if you wanted horsepower,  horses were where it was at.  Trains might have been faster, but horses are living creatures, a significant image in a symphony which deals with life and physical enjoyment.  The first movement  connects inexorably to the last, where earthly life may be over, but heavenly life continues.  Haitink knows why speed alone isn't essential.  Mahler's marking is "Bedächtig, nicht eilen"  ie not mad rush but orderly progression.  Change is inevitable but we want to enjoy what we can, while we can.

The transition to the second movement marked a new stage in the journey. Haitink defined the dance-like figures, making connections to the Ländler to come.  Another good reason for connectingb the symphony with Dvořák's Violin Concerto where the series of figures evoke dance. Though Mahler came from a German-speaking community, socially distinct from the Bohemians among which they lived, the influence of Czech forms on his music needs to be better understood, especially since as a conductor he conducted much Czech repertoire.  At first the solo violin sings alone, then is joined by other instruments. The leader doesn't use two violins for nothing (George Tudorache, Guest Leader).  Sometimes there can be more malevolence in the scherzo, the "Freund' Hein" imagery evoking the medieval dance of death.   In this case, however, the malevolence was understated but subtlety is no demerit : no mistaking the chill that sets in when the strings in the ensemble shiver, suggesting cutting winds (sleigh-ride imagery again), and also the circular figures that follow, again emphazing cyclic change.  The horns defined "winds" of change and a change of mood but the third movement, marked Ruhevoll,  is the real transition, a purgatory in which the issues of death are resolved into a more perfect "heavenly life".Thus the calm but determined pace and the repeated "waves" of sound.  Horns and winds here were impressive, coloured in Dvořák hues.  An excellent  climax, timpani pounding, horns blazing, the strings shining, the harps adding heavenly light, sustained woodwind lines calling out into space.  Whatever this represents, it is the transitional point in the symphony, claering away the past. Again, Haitink showed how it's not volume per se that counts but the hint that a new future awaits ahead
Haitink has probably conducted more Mahler than anyone else : not to know Haitink's Mahler is not to know Mahler.  His less-is-more conducting style eschews bombast, but is ideally attuned to the sensitivity that reveals Mahler's greatest depths.  There can be many ways of interpreting the final movement, but so much pivots on the singer.  The voice should be pure enough to suggest a child, though no child has the heft to sing with such power for roughly 15 minutes with barely a break.  The song expresses happiness so complete that it verges on ecstasy, but thius ecstasy has been won at the expense of tragedy. The child in the text is dead, whether killed by starvation, or from disasters like the ill-fated Crusade of St. Ursula   Singers with clear, high timbres can create the angelic aspects of the piece but physical sensuality is also part of the mix : "Wir genießen die himmlischen Freuden," Das himmlisches Leben isn't an easy sing,  by any means.
Sally Matthews substituted earlier in the week for the scheduled soloist, Anna-Luisa Richter, who has been described as "a young Elly Ameling". Sally Matthews sang the soprano part in Haitink's Munich Beethoven Symphony no 9, in February, but the soprano part in Mahler 's Symphony no 4 is an altogether different prospect.  Up to this point, Haitink and the LSO had been creating a Mahler 4 of exquaite refinement and delicacy, but the singing here didn't connect.  This interpretation was more sturdy school hymn than divine transfiguration. Whatever the technical faults, what matters above all else is the expression of meaning. If being reborn on a more rarified, heavenly plane isn't exciting what then is the point of surviving death? Haitink has done many wonderful Mahler Fourths over the last 60 years. As a Mahler conductor, he is unique and greatly cherished. A pity then that this last section was so unsatisfying, leaving us hungering for what could have been.  

Refreshed and reinvigorated : Haitink at 90 - Mozart, Bruckner

Bernard Haitink, LSO 10/3/19 photo : Sylvia Haotong Wong

Bernard Haitink at 90 : honoured by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbicua, London: as honour for the audience, too, not only in the hall but internationally, online.  A true Haitink programme : Mozart Piano Concerto no 22 with Till Fellner, and Bruckner Symphony no 4.  Haitink was looking much less exhausted than he did in Munich (Please read more here) where he had conducted several concerts in a row : at 90, anyone deserves a rest !  Most people couldn't conduct like this, even in their dreams.   A truly classic performance, with the depth and sensitivity that are hallmarks of Haitink's style, where the music shines, not the conductor. Haitink channels the composer, inspiring his players to give of their best.

Absolute poise from Fellner, the richness in his playing adding sparkle, supported by the LSO. This is what "classical balance" means : equanimity, elegance, civilization. Virtues which in these venal, mendacious times we need to cherish all the more.  Not long ago someone said to me "No-one listens any more to Mozart and Bach". I thought, "No wonder trolls are taking over the world".   Haitink reminds us that sensitivity and intelligence are what make us decent human beings.  In that context, Haitink's Bruckner shone with the nobility one might associate with Beethoven, warmed by the humility that lies at the heart of Bruckner.  This symphony is like a cathedral : beautifully shaped and proportioned, with little personal quirks embedded, all dedicated in the service oif some higher power, whether that power is God, or music itself.  I'm noit 90 - yet - but I came away refreshed and reinvigorated.

Can't wait til Thursday when Haitink returns to the LSO with Dvořák Piano Concerto (Isabelle Faust, another Haitink regular) and Mahler Symphony no 4 (Anna-Lucia Richter, whose first London recital I heard at the Wigmore Hall way back when - she's proved her promise! I will write more about her Schubert CD Heimweh, shortly)

Happy Birthday, Bernard Haitink

Happy 90th Birthday, Bernard Haitink, loved by all !

Utterly moving - Bernard Haitink Beethoven, Gasteig

Bernard Haitink conducting Beethoven Symphony no 9 with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks livestreamed from the Philharmonie im Gasteig on BR Klassik.  Soloists Sally Matthews, Gerhild Romberger, Mark Padmore and Gerald Finley, with the Bayerischen Rundfunks Choir.  Nuno Coelho conducted the opener Meeres Stille und Glückliche Fahrt,  saving the highlight for Haitink. A highly emotional occasion most of us who experienced it will never forget.  Listen again HERE for a limited period.  An excellent, punchy performance, even though Haitink looked tired and frail.  Which makes us appreciate him all the more! Don't miss the long farewell at the end. Tears run down Haitink's cheeks, though he turns away from the camera. Such humility, such sincerity, all in the service of the music he loves.  That's exactly why we love him.

Last month in Amsterdam, he did three concerts in a row  - 24th, 25th and 26th Jan. Wisely a rest before he returns to the Barbican Hall in London to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra  on March 10th with Mozart and Bruckner (which will be livestreamed) and Dvorak and Mahler on the 14th and 21st.   On 18th, he'll repeat the LSO programme at the Philharmonie de Paris.  

Berlioz, Haitink, Mahler and other livestreams

Listening links and livestreams (click on blue bold for link)

Berlioz : La Damnation de Faust - François-Xavier Roth nous propose sa vision de "La Damnation de Faust" avec les forces de son orchestre Les Siècles. From L'Opea de Versailles. Condensed but intense HIGHLY RECOMMENDED  Very good soloists - Mathias Vidal, Anna Caterina Antonacci, Nicolas Courjal. Though it's too early to tell, this might be one of the highlights of this Berlioz anniversary year.

Berlioz : L'Enfance du Christ, Andrew Davis, BBC NOW HERE. This coincides with the release of Davis's recording of the piece with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, which I haven't yet heard, but the combination of BBC NOW, the National Chorus of Wales and these soloists (Sarah Connolly, Andrew Staples (divine), Roderick Williams) would be pretty hard to top.

Berlioz Requiem, Lutoslawski - Pablo Heras-Casado  from the Philharmoniue de Paris from 20th February

Mahler : Symphony no 8 - Gergiev, Munich Philharmonic, Philharmonie de Paris  Gergiev's  unpredictable, and his Mahler often disappoints tho' his recent Mahler 4 and Das Lied von der Erde were surprisingly good.  Any Mahler 8 is worth hearing. This one thankfully wasn't over the top and hysterical.  It was good enough, and better than quite a lot. Luckily I didn't get to hear him do it in St Paul's Cathedral ten years ago where my friends said the naves sucked the life out of it .

Bernard Haitink : Beethoven 9,  Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks live from 22nd February on BR Klassik. Red Letter Day

Bernard Haitink at 90, LSO, Barbican  : Bruckner 4 amd Mozart from 10th March.  I'll be at the Mahler 4 programme on 12th March, which isn't being broadcast. There are still a few tickets for the repeat on 14th March. Grab them - Anna Lucia Richter the soloist is worth hearing

Berlioz Bits - Lélio, Waverley. La Mort de Cléopatra Pascal Rophé, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, live from Glasgow

Mahler Das Lied von der Erde - Sakari Oramo BBC SO - Elizabeth Kullmann and Stuart Skelton, who should be good. From 22nd February

Transfiguration : Mahler Symphony no 9 Bernard Haitink, London Symphony Orchestra, Barbican

"Where words fail, music speaks"  These words were spoken by Gareth Davis, Chairman of the London Symphony Orchestra, before this performance of Mahler's Symphony no 9 with Bernard Haitink conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, at the Barbican Hall, London.  These words will be repeated over and over, for so they should be.  How can we respond, as decent people, to events like the bombing in Manchester? There are no quick-fix solutions.  But in uncivilized times, having faith in the power of higher ideals  may help, or at least offer the comfort of hope. We can, of course, listen to concerts with complete detachment, but emotional engagement adds to the experience. Our response to this performance could not but be coloured by events.

Because the Ninth was Mahler's last completed symphony, connections are often made with imminent death. Yet from first to last,  Mahler's symphonies chart transitions : from death to resurrection, from struggle to transcendence.  Das Lied von der Erde, Mahler's "true" ninth, quite explicitly connects death with renewal on a different plane of existence.  The "farewell" in Symphony no 9 is not annihilation but the journey from past to future.  Bernard Haitink has probably conducted more Mahler in his long career than most, yet he continues to develop.   Live perfomances are always "new", only recordings remain fixed, like specimens in a jar.   Eight years ago, he conducted this symphony with the same orchestra : the notes were the same, but the performances quite distinctive.

The gentle, palpitating motif at the beginning flowed into blazing, more expansive outbursts   A constant sense of shifting movement, bright horns and trumpets contrasting with the measured "footsteps" in the strings, echoed in the percussion.  The palpitating motif returned repeatedly, in different forms, ever moving forward.  Much is made of Bernstein's description of the motif as heartbeat, which is valid, and which is why it's so often referred to.  But abstract sounds can mean anything, depending on context.  From what we now know of Mahler's music and his personality, I think we can proceed towards a more open-ended interpretation, taking into account his interest in wider metaphysical ideas. In the next few days, we'll be seeing images of funerals - not only in Manchester, but, alas, all over the world. children die, and keep getting killed.  Whatever is at the root of this mindless attrition, thinking beyond self and more about others, might be part of the way forward.

Thus in this performance, the connotations were less militaristic march than purposeful traverse, as if the protagonist were trudging across mountains, toward a goal. Chills descended, nonetheless, but the melody leads on.  Hearing the violin and flute (Roman Simovic and Gareth Davis) in dialogue, I thought of Siegfried and the woodbird.

The second movement employs different dance forms. But why Ländler? Dance is physical movement, often in circles, with repetitions and small individual variation.  And why the marking  "Etwas täppisch und sehr derb"?  (rustic, simple, earthy). Perhaps the allusion is to nature and to fertility.  In Das Lied von der Erde, Nature does the work. In the Ninth Symphony, farmers toil.   Harvests mean plenty. In the violin perhaps we hear village musicians, sometimes local, sometimes journeymen.  But the rhythms are driven, with frenzy. all too soon winter comes and the ground lies fallow. Here the LSO, brilliant players, re-create the edgy, almost angular rhythms, which fade "into the mists", so to speak, of strings, harp and brass.  The palpitating figures in the first movement returned, in new variation, and the "march" pulled urgently forward, percussion crashing, brass ablaze.

The chill in the Rondo-Burleske was almost palpable, as if the strings were shivering.  Has frost cut down the harvest?   Dark bassoons murmured, the strings went quiet, yet again  from this desolation a melodic line (violin) arose, rising upward.  But the best was yet to come. The Finale was so refined that it seemed to come from another realm.   The high tessitura shimmered so beautifully that the music seemed bathed in ethereal light.  Upwards and upwards, the sounds levitated, counterbalanced by gentle diminuendos.  How does Haitink get players to hold lines with such poise and refinement? 
He knows the LSO well, and they love him in return.  It must be some kind of alchemy.  When they performed this Finale in 2009, I could hardly hold my breath for fear of missing a moment.  This time round, even more refined transparency. The music doesn't "end" so much as becomes rarified, transmuted onto another plane of existence, beyond what the human ear can comprehend.  If Mahler's Ninth is a symphony of death, something happens along the way, which leads to total transfiguration.  And so, back to the phrase "Where words fail, music speaks". Absolutely necessary in these times of hate and madness.

Photo: Roger Thomas

Sublime, spiritual Haitink Mahler 3 Prom

Bernard Haitink conducted Mahler Symphony no 3  with the London Symphony Orchestra at BBC Prom 18 on Friday, available audio  and video on BBC4 TV.  I couldn't be present live since I was at Gloucester for the Three Choirs Festival Mahler Symphony no 8 (read my review here)  Repeat broadcasts are a boon especially with Haitink because he doesn't do "instant gratification" but rewards thoughtful concentration.  In a career spanning over 60 years, Haitink has probably conducted more  Mahler than anyone else, and with orchestras that have long Mahler credentials, like the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, which Mahler himself listened to when Willem Mengelberg conducted, over 100 years ago.  Haitink has authority: in London, we've been lucky enough to hear him conduct several times a year, with the LSO and with the Royal Opera House – so often indeed that he feels like part of the family.  Yet even though he's conducted so much over so many years, he nearly always finds something new to say. Never take Haitink for granted! His Mahler carries authority.

Mahler's Symphony no 3 unfolds like a spiritual journey across a vast terrain. A friend perceptively observed that this performance was "not a young man's Mahler" but something much more unusual – a wise, mature traversal born of a lifetime's engagement with Mahler and his music on a very deep level.  It carried authority.  The LSO horns called out, projecting into the vast expanses of the Royal Albert Hall. I thought about the Salzkammergut, and the mountains of the hoher Dachstein range which tower about the Attersee, on whose shores Mahler spent summers, working in a "composing hut" by the edge of the water. Scale counts, but it's not the size of the orchestra that counts, nor the length of the symphony that matters, but context, the bigness of vision.

What matters is the way Mahler evokes  the power of Nature through powerful blocks of sound, which rise like mountains, drawing the listener ever upwards.  Haitink understands the "hiking pulse" in the steady pace which suggests purposeful footsteps and strength. No neurasthenic neurosis! Mahler was a hiker and mountain biker, who understood the physical discipline involved. Just as you can't do mountains ill prepared, you can't do music without first mastering the basic discipline of respecting the score and its execution.  Thus the firmness of Haitink's conducting, honed by experience. The snare drums rattle and the brass breaks free, but notice the taut control and the quiet rumble of concentration: greater peaks lie ahead. The trombones evoke mountain horns, whose sound is meant to carry across vast distances in space.  The "hiking pulse" in the violins sets the tone for the expansive exuberance to come. The moments of warmth  were particularly moving: as if  Haitink was reflecting on happy times. Yet this was much more than a sunny, open-air interpretation. We can't stop in the "meadow" with the flowers, however sweet they might be.  Lovely dialogue here between then "earthly" instruments and the "celestial" off-stage flugelhorn.  Pan rushed in with anarchic vigour.

Sarah Connolly sang the haunting "O Mensch". Take heed, for the woodwinds curl and twist around the voice evoking the images of death, pain and night in the text. But the solo violin enters, connecting to the fifth movement where the women of the London Symphony Chorus and the Tiffin Boys Choir sing of angels and of celestial bliss. For all the "Nature" elements in this symphony, for Mahler, the spiritual is never far away.  The Finale was proof of Haitink's concept - emotions as deep and as complex as this can't be expressed with surface bluster. Haitink's wise, calm confidence is powerful because it is sincere: it's grown almost organically from a lifetime of experience. When the timpani boom and the strings shine, we have reached a destination beyond mortal ken.

Interpreting Mahler 9th - Bernard Haitink

In a career spanning over 60 years,  much of which was spent with one of the great Mahler orchestras, Bernard Haitink has probably conducted more Mahler than anyone else. Recordings tend to shape opinion, but recordings aren't "real life" but only snapshots of a moment, which, once past, is gone.  Musicians like Haitink can't churn out the same thing all the time.  Thus the importance of constantly learning, constantly re-thinking  and developing.  And always, drawing insight from source. "Conductors should not treat Mahler as a "free for all", Haitink once said, "Mahler's symphonies should not be treated as fantasies, rhapsodies. They are very carefully structured. He was a conductor, he knew very well what he was doing. Emotion is there but one should not tilt the balance".
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Because the 9th was Mahler's last completed symphony, the myth has it that it must be gloomy and death-ridden. Such interpretations are valid, if they reflect a conductor's response. Hence Haitink's comment that interpretation should stem from understanding not wilful intervention. Emotional intelligence enhances nuance: the wider the emotional range, the greater the capacity for understanding. Modern scholarship shows that Mahler was an intellectual, who could see beyond surface sentiment. Unlike many of his era, he didn't get off on the pornography of death, but tried to consider what might lie beyond.  He loved life, and nature and the power of the soul to transcend earthly limitations. Throughout his entire output run themes of transformation and renewal.  Fifty years ago, we weren't familiar with what Mahler completed in what's now known as his Tenth symphony.  We can't blank that out. So bang goes any theory of histrionics in Mahler 9th.

Haitink has conducted Mahler 9th many times, so it's pointless to think he does a "standard" version.  But one performance sticks in my mind because it moved me so much.  It was in London, in 2009. I wrote then that he "produced a performance of ethereal, spiritual clarity, so pure that it felt like abstract art. As Haitink said, the coda is "timeless", soaring ever higher until it disappears from human hearing. To Haitink it is a "farewell" but not in a maudlin sense, but in the sense that Mahler is heading into unknown territory, where earthly constraints no longer apply. Mahler is stretching the boundaries, heading towards a new beginning. That's why it's so exhilarating.

Almost immediately, Haitink establishes the ground rules. He gets a surprisingly sweet, warm sound from the London Symphony Orchestra -- completely different from the sour crudeness Gergiev produced. Instead, Haitink gets the strings to play with such gossamer lightness that the sound seems to rise into the air. Open horizons, endless possibilities, the finale already in sight. Suddenly the pace steps up with the striding theme led by brass. Things move forward. There's definite, purposeful direction beneath this delicate spirit.

It's not for nothing that Mahler was a keen hiker who spent much time in the mountains. Think back to the "mountain peaks" of the Third Symphony and the panoramic vistas that unfold. Here we hear them again, when Mahler might have thought his hiking days over. Haitink's light touch brings out the sub-themes, which swirl like wind, circulating in spirals but always pushing forward. From this evolves the solo violin, played by the leader, Gordan Nikolitch. Even by his standards, this was exceptionally beautiful. The violin soars but doesn't take off on its own. Instead it dialogues with the flute, here played with great delicacy by Gareth Davies. It's like watching two birds flying together. Then the violin takes flight and soars ever higher beyond the reach of the flute. Because the second movement is titled Im Tempo eines gemächliches Ländlers, it's easy to assume it's a straightforward depiction of country dances, but Mahler has been using these images so often that we know he's not entirely literal. Haitink doesn't exaggerate the dance aspects, not even the muted swagger. Mahler's instructions were that these passages should be played "clumsily", the way real peasants move. The orchestra is solemn and dignified, trying very hard to be earthbound, for soon the mood will change.

Haitink even finds dignity in the Rondo-burleske. Defiance doesn't need to be violent. Indeed, this muted tension seems to spring from sources too deep to be easily defused, and is all the more powerful for that. Stamp, stamp go the angular rhythms, like an impatient beast pounding the ground. Against this suppressed savagery, the notes of the harp take off, flowing up the scale, an image of light, yet again.

When the final movement begins. it's clear from Haitink's reading that it's a resolution of what has gone before. This Adagio seems to lift off, rising higher and higher. It moves in ever increasing circles like a bird hovering over the earth. The "stamping" theme of the Rondo burleske surfaces in muted form but is left far behind. Haitink plays this orchestra so well that the music seems to grow, smoothly and naturally, like an organic being. Gradually. literal detail fades into abstraction. Are we seeing the world below disappearing like a bird might see it when entering clouds? The final lift-off is magical, the sound receding as if it were being drawn up into the stratosphere. If Mahler has headed off, it's into the transcendent light, the Urlicht, which has fascinated him all along."

Listen - Daniele Gatti dirigeert Mahler 9

Listen HERE to a live recording of  the opening concert of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, from August 2013. It's Mahler Symphony no 9, conducted by Daniele Gatti, who was confirmed lasst week as the new Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam. The news was hardly "news" in the sense of being unexpected, since orchestras tend to appoint conductors whom they know well, and who are good in their core repertoire. Gatti is also high profile , which matters in an ultra-prestige appointment like the Concertgebouw. Gatti is reliable, with enough flair to make an imprint.

The more intriguing story is what may be going on behind the scenes. Earlier this year, Bernard Haitink decided that he'd never again conduct  the RCO, with whom he's been associated so closely for half a century. (Read my article here)  Pointedly, he marked his 60th anniversary as conductor by conducting the RFO, with whom he started as a young man. Haitink's been emeritus for a long time, so it was even more of a shock when Mariss Jansons suddenly announced his departure from the RCO, while continuing as chief of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he's contracted until 2018. There's some evidence that the RCO is running into financial trouble, but that alone wouldn't deter anyone from an orchestra with the RCO's prestige and reputation  Read more here.

And HERE another Gatti concert, from 2010 - Prokofiev, Brahms and Richard Strauss.

Haitink 60th Jubilee Mahler 4 broadcast RFO not RCO

 

Last night, Bernard Haitink conducted Mahler Symphony no 4  to celebrate the 60th anniversary of his debut as a conductor. It's ONLINE NOW, in full video ! Listen soon because it won't be up long. Mahler 4 is very close to Haitink's heart, so this is a wonderful performance,. But it's even more poignant because, on this very important occasion, he's conducting the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. He's been associated with them for many years, of course, but they aren't the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. Haitink began conducting the RCO in 1957 so it really was a major shock when he suddenly quit on the very eve of his 85th birthday. Read how the story broke HERE (in Dutch). Haitink nooit meer bij Concertgebouworkest  (Haitink will have no more to do with the Concertgebouw)

Haitink felt that thr RCO management wasn't treating him with enough respect, so he decided never to play for them again. It wasn't a spur of the moment decision but had been building up for some time, as these things usually do. What was unusual, though is how Haitink went public. Usually all sides are cagey, speaking through lawyers and agents in mutually agreed terms. 

Haitink's been around long enough that he can rest on his laurels. Although some click baiters claim they know why Franz Welser-Möst quit the Vienna Staatsoper, nothing in fact has been revealed. I wasn't that surprised, as the Vienna Staatsoper has had a chequered past and in recent years it's got quite boring. But we should show more respect for condutors who place artistry above all. In this increasingly pusillanimous world, ruled by petty short-term values, we need conductors who stand up for what they believe in.

Fragile but powerful - Haitink Mahler 4, Schubert Prom 40

" I prefer Mahler slender, not pompous" said Bernard Haitink in rehearsals before BBC Prom 40 2014.  By "slender" I think he means the opposite of pompous, ie. not overinflated, egotistic, or self-satisfied. "Slender" is relevant in the context of Mahler's Symphony no 4 , because the children in Das himmlisches Leben are enjoying food with almost manic glee.  (read my article "Why greedy kids in Mahler 4") These children have been deprived of sustenance so long that all they can think of is the simple needs the rest of us take for granted.  At this time, children are starving to death on mountains in Iraq; other children are dying in Gaza; and millions more children will grow up to die in conflicts all round the world. Mahler's Symphony no 4 is utterly relevant today.

Haitink's less-is-more conducting style is utterly relevant too. In many ways, the Mahler annivesrary year set Mahler appreciation back to the Dark Ages. Just as we were coming to understand the sensitive, intellectual side of Mahler, the festivities brought a slough of bland performances. Commercial pressures usually override artistic needs. Good conductors have to conduct  Mahler even if they have nothing to say, because what promoters want is what sells, and that often means "generic".  When Haitink says there's too much Mahler around, I think he means that there's too much non-Mahler Mahler. Take heed, BBC Proms!  The more audiences are fed mediocrity, the more they mistake musical fast food for nutrition.  Many times in the last few years, I've felt like the lone dissident in a mass public rally.  Perhaps Haitink is swimming against an unstoppable tide, but he's a man of courage and integrity.

Bedächtig. Nicht eilen and In gemächlicher bewungen. Ohne hast : Mahler's score markings suit Haitink's trademark slow tempi. No need to rush, but rather linger in the present, or more accurately, perhaps, in memories of a sunnier past.  Haitink shapes the oddly dance-like rhythms so they feel airy, more  like the innocent way children dance than heavy-footed Ländler. Such deft lightness from the LSO, who love Haitink and know his style well. When Mahler introduces "winds of change" the strings and brass take on a melancholy mood, as if they don't want the happiness to end.  Gradually, a darker mood emerges. Haitink's attention to detail lets us hear the soft plodding"foosteps" behind the panoramic legato. Nocturnal images perhaps, or images of death? In the rising woodwind melody can we hear a hint of Kindertotenlieder?  Is Mahler saying goodbye to his Wunderhorn years, in preparation for the next phase in his creative life?

From this emerges the solo violin motif, at first sweetly seductive. But, like the Pied Piper, this music leads to death. This particular Freund' Hein underplayed the grotesque scordatura tuning, but his was in keeping with Haitink's emphasis on the goal towards which the symphony is heading. The Third Movement (marked Ruhevoll) is a transition, a purgatory in which the issues of death are resolved into a more perfect "heavenly life". Hence the variations and contemplation, from which the soloist (Camilla Tilling) emerges, almost seamlessly from the music around her. 

Tilling's voice doesn't have quite the pure, angelic ping of, say, Christine Schäfer, but she's been singing this part for nearly 20 years and her experience shows. She may not be ideally child-like, but she's a spokesperson, reaching out to the parents of the dead children, perhaps, consoling them with images of happiness. Most people don't want children to suffer. Even if the parents of these children themselves died in famines or wars, faith in a better afterlife gives some kind of comfort. Haitink's poignant interpretation emphasized the fragility of human existence. missiles crash and people die on barren mountainsides; we are vulnerable in a savage world.  I could hardly breathe as I listened. Yet, as Mahler and Haitink remind us: “Kein Musik ist ja nicht auf Erden, die uns’rer verglichen kann werden,”  No music on Earth can compare to the music of Heaven. We can but hope.

As he's done several times in the past, including with the LSO at the Barbican in 2009, Haitink preceded Mahler 4 with Schubert's Symphony no 5, an early piece written when Schubert was still little more than a child.  Haitink brought out the purity in the orchestration, linking the symphony to the deceptive simplicity of Schubert's Lieder and chamber music. i thought of Schubert, full of dreams and ambition, cruelly cut down aged only 29.

Prince Igor with blood and guts

Although Borodin's Prince Igor is rarely seen live in the west, there are many recordings. The music is gorgeous, and everyone knows the hit song "Stranger in Paradise".  Borodin's Prince Igor at the Coliseum, London with Novaya Opera and the Met's version have created a lot of publicity, but they are hardly the only points of reference. So in the interest of learning more, I watched how it  was done at the Royal Opera House in 1990, only 25 years ago, well within living memory, though the production was never revived. Bernard Haitink conducted the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra and Chorus. The singers included Sergei Leiferkus, Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Paata Burchuladze, Elena Zaremba and Nicola Ghiuselev.. By any standards, a performance to be reckoned with. The director was Andrei Șerban, best known in the UK for his Puccini Turandot

"Glory to the fair sun ! Glory to Prince Igor! Glory, glory!" sing the people of Putivl. Almost immediately, though, the sky (and set) darken. There's a solar eclipse. Șerban's set is based on strong visual angles, diagonals, horizontals and uprights. Igor and Yaroslava are further isolated by colour.  Their gowns billow gold and red, against the monochrome of their followers.  Then out come the icons, red and gold, too. No wonder Igor thinks he's on God's mission. Yet the same colours appear in the scene of debauchery where Prince Galitsky's followers get drunk and attack women.  More nudity (discreet) and violence here than at the Met or Coliseum, I suspect, but it's entirely appropriate. It's in the script. These thugs sing comic songs. Brutality underpins the whole narrative: miss it and you might as well watch Postman Pat.

The point is emphasized when Yaroslava sings her long aria against a backdrop of austere angles and moonlight tones. "Where are you now, oh bygone days?" She is faithful to her man but the men around her have little concept of  fidelity. The maidservants who have been raped writhe in white shifts. Soon after the "Glory" chorus returns, and the Boyars place their faith in God's protection. Huge bells ring out, but Yaroslava senses danger. With piercing pathos, Tomowa-SintoW sings "There is no escaping God's judgement".

Borodin immediately shifts to the Dance of the Polovtsian Maidens (photo of Elena Zaremba at the top). The costumes are exotic, and the music suggests "eastern" exoticism but the mood is desolation.  Konchak the Polovtsian Khan has captured Prince Igor whose son Vladimir loves Konchakovna. The understated set places full emphasis on the singers and the singing, and they deliver, beautifully. Burchuldaze's gorgeous in golden robes, too, and a true basso, his timbre warmed by the personality in the part.  The Polovtsian dances are wonderfully staged : the male dancer moves with angular but athletic grace. The orchestra create the "wild" rhythms of the steppes so dramatically that being a Stranger in Paradise doesn't seem like a bad prospect at all. Can we hear in this celebration of "savagery" hints of the Rite of Spring to come? Sadly, the filming is blurred and shot from a  fixed point in the balcony.

In contrast, Putivl with its repressive values does seem dull. Igor is back, but what has anyone learned? The comic players who caroused drunkenly when the women got raped, start singing again. Galitsky meekly accedes to Igor. What might really have happened had Borodin lived? Șerban's staging goes a long way towards making dramatic sense of a sprawling, illogical narrative held together by seductive music. Complicated contract problems prevented this Prince Igor from being repeated. A pity, since the staging adds so much to meaning. It still stands the test of time, though, so if it could be revived, it would help audiences to better appreciate the opera .

Schäfer sings Mahler 4 with Haitink

Christine Schäfer sings Mahler 4/4 on Saturday at the Barbican with Haitink and the LSO. This is one I've been waiting for for months, because I like her light, clean voice, very "white" which suits the nature of the piece. In fact I like this kind of clarity in Mahler in general. On the Boulez recording of Mahler 2 she's ethereal and almost steals the show though the soprano part is fairly short. This clip comes from her perfomance of the 4th Symphony with Haitink and the Concertgebouw. I'm not sure of the exact date because they must have performed it together several times. There's a good recording from 2006. Obviously, it's not a smart idea to micro compare performances as each one differs every time, but this is a nice taster. She looks so tense in the film, in that black suit, but sounds fine. Listen to the poised way she slows down on "tausend Jungfrauen", like the way dancers dip in some graceful dance.

The other day someone told me they heard someone say they didn't like Mahler 4 because it was "too light". But the child in the song is dead, and the 11000 virgins were massacred. It's not a "happy" symphony, charming as it is. Sometimes sopranos sing this with more gusto, which is fine because it is sensuous - all that food! Please see my earlier posts on Mahler 4th especially the one "Why greedy kids in Mahler 4" Schäfer doesn't look greedy but that's OK, there are many ways of singing this, and her way is good for creating the idea of a child no longer of this world.

Haitink, LSO - Das Lied von der Erde, Barbican 11th October

For a placid soul, Bernard Haitink never ceases to surprise. After all these years, you'd think you can predict what he'll do, so you don't go and he pulls off something wonderful, And then you go and get disappointed because he's off on a limb. But that's a better thing than if he churned out the same thing all the time. Now he's getting older and frail - he avoids the steps up to the stage as much as possible - you feel you want to hear him regardless, for old times' sake if nothing else. And he still delivers.

Although Haitink has conducted Mahler's symphonies countless times, his forays into Das Lied von der Erde have been less frequent. His recording with Janet Baker was so long ago, it doesn't reflect what he does now).This isn't an ordinary symphony, but a song symphony where songs act as movements. It's certainly not operatic, but the predominance of words shows that Mahler is trying to emphasize meaning. This isn't abstract sound, but has purpose. Metaphysics as music, perhaps.

Although there are no "characters" in this piece the interplay between male and female voices is significant on a deeper level than vocal balance. In Das Trinklied, the symphony is fully "of this world" seeking escape. In Der Abschied, Mahler finds transcendence in images of eternal renewal. In between these poles lie the four songs which mark a passage from past to future. Der Abschied itself develops over a series of stages, until the resolution, which then floats away in that miraculous ewig... ewig...... when sound itself dissolves into the silence of infinity.

So Das Lied von der Erde is more than symphony but a strange new hybrid of music and song. Perhaps the closest equivalent is Kindertotenlieder, where five songs form a transition from dark to light, from harrowing grief to deeper understanding. Pierre Boulez once said he found his way to Mahler via the songs, which is perceptive, because song in Mahler is crucial.

In many ways, Das Lied von der Erde operates as three units - conductor and orchestra, and the two soloists. People often joke that there hasn't been aa perfect performance because none has managed the perfect combination, and to some extent that's true, to varying degrees, and usually it's a mixture of all factors. Often the weakest link is the tenor, because the all-important Abschied belongs to the female voice. But as I've written before, it's a kind of tradition that tenors don't understand what the drunken poet represents, and sing with too much luscious charm. Li Bao is no Mario Lanza. Even Jonas Kaufmann made a mess of the cycle at Edinburgh a few years back.

Tonight's tenor, Anthony Dean Griffey, stepped in for Robert Gambill at short notice, but he's sung the part many times. If anything some slight stiffness in his voice in the first song helped dispel the soft-grained cosiness that marked Robert Dean Smith's performance with Haitink a few years back. Although there were balance problems with the orchestra at first, Griffey and Haitink judged each other more carefully fairly soon into Das Trinklied. In Von der Jugend, Griffey was more at ease because it's a wonderfully vivid song. If its true depths weren't reached, it's no discredit to him, as only a very few singers have achieved that feat. When the concert is broadcast (BBC Radio 3, 22nd October), the miking should show what was lost in the acoustic of the Barbican Hall.

Only a few years ago, Christianne Stotjin made her first high-profile UK debut at the Oxford Lieder Festival, where many new singers have made a name. She's sung with Haitink many times, so she was the reason I wanted to attend this performance. In Der Einsame im Herbst, she had moments of uncharacteristic clouded diction, but in the Abschied she showed why she's one of the leading Mahler mezzos around. She saved Vladimir Jurowski's recent Mahler 2nd almost single-handed.

Perhaps something was clouding the beginning of this Das Lied orchestrally too, as there were a few close calls before the first song pulled together. As usual with Haitink, orchestral soloists were showcased to advantage, through the conductor's lover of fine detail. Haitink doesn't hurry. He'll sacrifice thrust for pointillist perfection. Once I heard him conduct the first movement of Mahler's 2nd so slowly that the line began to break up, and the players could barely sustain the legato. Yet it worked, in the end. With some orchestras this isn't a good idea, but with the London Symphony Orchestra, where standards are so high, this attention works well. I've never heard the double basses quite so chillingly hollow as in the passages in the Abschied which mark the transit from one plane of existence to another. Ir takes some doing to get instruments as naturally resonant as these to sound like harbingers of death. Not a pretty sound at all, but well judged: a pity that more conductors don't realize that the beauty of this music masks traumatic fear of the unknown.

Repeatedly, Haitink's left hand fluttered downwards, keeping the orchestra in check, pacing an Abschied as solemn as a procession. For procession it is, with carefully gauged stops and starts and subtle changes of emotional direction, until the music enters another place, filled with light and freedom. "Die liebe Erde" sang Stotjin, her face aglow. Clearer and brighter came the textures in the orchestra. "Allüberall und ewig". Rich, round vowel sounds evoking the richness of spring and the promise of harvests to come, and the ripening of vines as yet unknown.

Before Das Lied von der Erde, came Schubert's 8th, the Unvollendete. Perhaps because I love the melody in this so much, I expect it to be played with lively vitality. This time Haitink's discretion didn't work for me, because he smoothed out the quirky kinks I like so much in this piece. Recently some survey said people like classical music because it's "relaxing", and this performance certainly was. Maybe I was too fired up for Mahler to relax enough to enjoy it. Please read about Haitink's M9 at the Proms HERE

Mahler 9 as abstract art - Haitink, Prom 5 2009

Conductors should not treat Mahler as a "free for all", says Bernard Haitink. "Mahler's symphonies should not be treated as fantasies, rhapsodies. They are very carefully structured. He was a conductor, he knew very well what he was doing. Emotion is there but one should not tilt the balance".

Please see HERE for more on Haitink and Das Lied von der Erde.

Because the 9th was Mahler's last completed symphony, the myth has it that it must be gloomy and death ridden. Sometimes extreme anguish can work, such as with Horenstein's two recordings, the second of which is almost too painful to listen to. Horenstein is valid because he's expressing real feelings inspired by the music. He's not indulging himself in imagined pathos for its own sake.

But there is more to Mahler than agony. Modern scholarship shows that Mahler was an intellectual, who could see beyond surface emotions. Unlike dotty Victorian sentimentalists, he didn't get off on the pornography of death, but strived to understand what was beyond. He loved life, and nature and the power of the soul to transcend earthly limitations.

In this amazing Prom, Bernard Haitink produced a performance of ethereal, spiritual clarity, so pure that it felt like abstract art. As Haitink said, the coda is "timeless", soaring ever higher until it disappears from human hearing. To Haitink it is a "farewell" but not in a maudlin sense, but in the sense that Mahler is heading into unknown territory, where earthly constraints no longer apply. Mahler is stretching the boundaries, heading towards a new beginning. That's why it's so exhilarating.

Almost immediately, Haitink establishes the ground rules. He gets a surprisingly sweet, warm sound from the London Symphony Orchestra completely different from the sour crudeness Gergiev produced. Instead, Haitink gets the strings to play with such gossamer lightness that the sound seems to rise into the air. Open horizons, endless possibilties, the finale already in sight. Suddenly the pace steps up with the striding theme led by brass. things forward. There's definite, purposeful direction beneath this delicate spirit.

It's not for nothing that Mahler was a keen hiker who spent much time in the mountains. Think back to the "mountain peaks" of the Third Symphony and the panoramic vistas that unfold. Here we hear them again, when Mahler might have thought his hiking days over. Haitink's light touch brings out the sub-themes, which swirl like wind, circulating in spirals but always pushing forward. From this evolves the solo violin, played by the leader, Gordan Nikolitch. Even by his standards, this was exceptionally beautiful. The violin soars but doesn't take off on its own. Instead it dialogues with the flute, here played with great delicacy by Gareth Davies. It's like watching two birds flying together. Then the violin takes flight and soars ever higher beyond the reach of the flute.

Because the second movement is titled Im Tempo eines gemächliches Ländlers, it's easy to assume it's a straightforward depiction of country dances, but Mahler has been using these images so often that we know he's not entirely literal. Haitink doesn't exaggerate the dance aspects, not even the muted swagger. Mahler's intructions were that these passages should be played "clumsily", the way real peasants move. The orchestra is solemn and dignified, trying very hard to be earthbound, for soon the mood will change.

Haitink even finds dignity in the Rondo-burleske. Defiance doesn't need to be violent. Indeed, this muted tension seems to spring from sources too deep to be easily defused, and is all the more powerful for that. Stamp, stamp go the angular rhythms, like an impatient beast pounding the ground. Against this suppressed savagery, the notes of the harp take off, flowing up the scale, an image of light, yet again.

When the final movement begins. it's clear from Haitink's reading that it's a resolution of what has gone before. This Adagio seems to lift off, rising higher and higher. It moves in ever increasing circles like a bird hovering over the earth. The "stamping" theme of the Rondo burleske surfaces in muted form but is left far behind. Haitink plays this orchestra so well that the music seems to grow, smoothly and naturally, like an organic being. Gradually. literal detail fades into abstraction. Are we seeing the world below disappearing like a bird might see it when entering clouds? The final lift off is magical, the sound receding as it were being drawn up into the stratosphere. If Mahler has headed off, it's into the transcendent light, the Urlicht, which has fascinated him all along.

In this Prom, Haitink is aligned with the light-infused, spiritual approach to Mahler, like Boulez and Abbado, rather than Bernstein, Gergiev et al. This is where performance practice has been leading to for forty years. But Mahler's anniversary is coming up, and with that comes crass self-serving commercialism. Already there's pressure to package the composer so he'll sell to the populist market as "operatic" or "Wagnerian", downplaying just how unique he really was. Even Bruno Maderna gets called an "arch modernist", which is odd news, particularly to those who've actually heard Maderna conduct Mahler.


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