Glorious Bernard

Part two of my survey of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra's Radio Legacy – a 152 boxed set released to celebrate the RCO's 125th birthday – is now up on Sinfini Music. Much of it covers the Bernard Haitink era, when the young Dutchman took the helm of his nation's leading orchestra and maintained exceptional standards through to the 1980s. Listening to Haitink's recordings with the RCO, only some of which I was able to mention in the article, underlined just what an invigorating conductor he can be. He may be a grand old man now, focussing on a core of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler, but Haitink covered an exceptionally wide repertoire in his years with the RCO, delivering performance after performance with punch and panache. Such thrills and spills are well-paced and always hard-earned, making them all the surprising, paying particular dividends in his advocacy of contemporary music. Click here to order a copy of the RCO's birthday box.  

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