By Do Je-hae
Staff Reporter
Legendary conductor Bernard Haitink turns 80 today and musicians around the world are unanimously professing their admiration for the Dutch maestro's exceptional contribution to classical music. To mark the occasion, Decca this month released a commemorative 7-CD edition entitled "The Art of Bernard Haitink," consisting of the musician's definitive projects for the British recording label.
Currently the principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony, the octogenarian artist is as enthusiastic about his profession as ever, continuing to work with the finest orchestras in the United States and Europe. It seems he is well on his way to duplicating the feats of legendary conductors like Herbert Von Karajan or Sir Georg Solti, who performed rigorously even in the final days of their lives.
Born in 1929, the Amsterdam native was initially an orchestra violinist, but switched to conducting in his early 20s. His first major conducting was with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) of the Netherlands in 1964, leading the ensemble for almost 25 years. Perhaps overshadowed in his youth by towering figures like Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein or Carlos Kleiber and then somewhat obscured by the subsequent rise of the younger generation of conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Mariss Jansons and Sir Simon Rattle, Haitink nevertheless has matured into one of today's most respected and intellectual conductors.
Today, he is generally associated with his lifelong devotion to realizing the musical ideals of the Austrian symphonist, Gustav Mahler. In a TV documentary following a 1995 festival in Netherlands dedicated to the composer, Haitink professed a sincere admiration that has persisted throughout his career.
Some of the other composers he is often associated with are Shostakovich, Schumann and Beethoven. In particular, Haitink recorded the entire cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies several times with different top orchestras, the most recent one being the recording with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), released last year. Besides Haitink, only a very select few in music history have been able to record full cycles of major symphonists like Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Shostakovich and Mahler.
Even though Haitink has led many orchestras to utmost distinction, he is still most remembered for his long-standing partnership with the RCO, rated first in the United Kingdom's Gramophone Magazine list of the world's top 20 orchestras. Second on the list was the Berliner Philharmoniker, which has conferred an honorary membership on Haitink.
Haitink emphasized in a master class at the Royal college of Music in London that a conductor's role is "not to criticize but to give his players confidence," saying that when something goes wrong in a performance, it is oftentimes due to the fault of the conductor, not the player. Such humility and accountability has become his trademark. Over the years, he has paid scant attention to worldly fame or critical recognition, but instead has focused solely on music itself.
The conductor is also noted for approaching each musical project with the utmost regard to the composer's vision. He once remarked that performers are "second-rate people" in comparison to the composers who actually create music from scratch. The remark reflects just how dedicated the maestro is in being faithful first and foremost to conveying the message of the composer.
Many in the profession agree that, over the course of musical history, few have dealt with the enormous physical, psychological and intellectual challenges of a conductor with as much dedication and grace as Maestro Haitink.
The art of conducting is a mysterious and painstakingly complex undertaking, requiring an immense knowledge, first of the score itself, which is easily over a few hundred pages. On top of this, a professional conductor must familiarize himself with each different section of the orchestra and then know the notes by heart.
More importantly, the conductor must have an acute understanding of the historical, structural and theoretical context of the work. Based on his knowledge, experience and imagination, the conductor strives to realize the sound that the composer envisioned by breathing life into each and every note.
And then there is the other side of being a conductor, which is perhaps as equally important as the musical side, that of a being an efficient and communicative leader. A conductor must be a patient listener and have the ability to instill in his ensemble a sense of common purpose and partnership.
The music world has been lucky to have such a consummate master of his art for more than half a century, and on the occasion of his birthday today, it is united in its sincere wishes for many more years of Haitink's honorable service to music.