Bernard Haitink Bernard Haitink - The Early Years CD

The pre-eminent maestro of our day, caught in little-known studio recordings from the very beginning of his career. 
 
In an original and valuable documentary essay which serves as the booklet note, Niek Nelissen outlines the rapid and unlikely genesis of Haitink's career, from being rejected by Willem van Otterloo to taking over the reins of the Concertgebouw within less than a decade. He first stood in front of the orchestra in 1956, and five years later he was leading them on tours to the US and Japan. 
 
Following these tours, Philips recorded the partnership in two symphonies which had already become signature works for the young maestro, Beethoven's Eighth (in July 1962) and Mendelssohn's 'Italian' (February 1963). Hearing the Eighth in New York, the doyen of local critics Harold Schonberg remarked upon it as 'clean-cut Beethoven... precisely adjusted and handsomely executed'. According to Schonberg, Haitink 'makes music with plenty of ardor, a good deal of polish and all the temperament one could desire.'
 
In fact Haitink's very first recordings in charge of the orchestra he would lead for the next 35 years as music director date from 1960, during the interim period after the sudden death of Eduard van Beinum when he shared duties with Eugen Jochum. There is more Mendelssohn here – the Hebrides Overture, in a performance as acutely sensitive to the composer's tone-painting as we have come to expect from Haitink, and issued here for the first time in stereo – and a local rarity on disc, the Symphonic Etude by Hendrik Andriessen. Composed in 1952, this deliciously poised 10-minute essay deploys 12-tone technique in a post-Impressionist idiom through its four sections, and serves as a reminder that alongside his mastery of the symphonic tradition from Haydn to Shostakovich, Haitink was always a committed interpreter of the music of our time.