Haitink at 80.

The great Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink marks his 80th birthday today with a concert in his home city of Amsterdam. I could have written that Haitink 'celebrates his 80th birthday today,' but 'celebrates' might be too strong of a word, as Chicago Tribune music critic John von Rhein makes clear in a recent profile:

Bernard Haitink hates birthdays. Especially his own.

"If there existed a society for the abolishment of birthdays, I would at least want to be vice president," the maestro recently said, furrowing his dour Dutch brow.

In fact, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's principal conductor will be treating Wednesday, when he turns 80, just like any other day. Haitink will begin his ninth decade in his native Amsterdam, rehearsing and conducting Beethoven and Bruckner with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the great ensemble most indelibly associated with him during his 55-year career.

"I thought that was the way to do it, because I have had such a long and close relationship with that orchestra," said Haitink, who directed the Concertgebouw for 21 seasons, roughly two decades before the CSO chose him to head the transition team that would secure the orchestra's artistic fortunes between the directorships of Daniel Barenboim and Riccardo Muti.

Haitink shows no signs of slowing down. CSO musicians report that the vigor he displayed on the podium during the orchestra's recent Far East tour was undimmed from Yokohama to Beijing...

On his always-excellent classical music blog On An Overgrown Path, Bob Shingleton notes today that he has more Haitink LP's in his collection than recordings of any other conductor. I can make a similar claim, though all of my Haitink recordings are on CD. (To my regret, LP's had largely left the retail market by the time I got interested in music.) Though Bernard Haitink is one of my favorite conductors, I've heard him live on only one occasion, when he appeared at Carnegie Hall with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in May 2008. Nonetheless, I hope to hear him again this coming May when he is scheduled to lead the CSO in two more concerts in New York.

I like what the aforementioned post from On An Overgrown Path has to say about Haitink as "the ultimate musician's musician," a modest man who "resoundingly disproves the rule that you need an odious personality to be a great conductor." Boston classical music blogger Justin Locke has a bit more on this theme in a post explaining why musicians enjoy playing for Haitink. As a non-musician who admires and appreciates Haitink's conducting, I'm pleased that the maestro commands sincere respect from the musicians that he works with. If you'd like to sample some of his work, one place to start may be the free downloads of some Haitink recordings that will be available next week from the Dutch network Radio 4. For my part, I hope that Bernard Haitink enjoys many more happy, productive and rewarding years. AMDG.