Bernard Haitink – Ian Louis Harris

Bernard Haitink, Berliner Philharmoniker, BBC Prom, Royal Albert Hall, 28 August 2000

This concert will have been a birthday/bank holiday present to myself (and Janie). No chance that Pauline would be joining us for this one! My diary pointedly says “J&I” while Janie’s, equally pointedly, reads, “Ged & Me”.

We had already celebrated birthdays with John & Mandy at their place (Cambridge Road in those days) on the Saturday evening.

Back to the Monday Prom – just two big Germanic pieces:

Richard Wagner – Tristan and Isolde (Prelude and Liebestod)
Anton Bruckner – Symphony No. 7 in E major

Top orchestra, top conductor, top notch concert.

In fact, we were due to hear Claudio Abbado conduct this concert, but he had to withdraw due to ill health. I was hoping to do for Janie what Jilly had done for me a few years earlier, viz “you’ve got to see Abbado at least once”…but it was not to be.

My First Night At the Proms: Me, Jilly & Claudio, 1 September 1983

Tim Ashley in the Guardian was really taken with the concert as done by Haitink:

Haitink Ashley Guardian
Article from 31 Aug 2000 The Guardian (London, Greater London, England)

Beethoven & Bruckner, European Community Youth Orchestra Prom, Royal Albert Hall, 9 September 1997

Another trip to the Proms with The Duchess (Janie’s mum) to see the European Community Youth Orchestra. The Duchess had a bit of a thing about youth orchestras.

This concert, under the baton of Bernard Haitink, was surely interesting if for no other reason than that. A great opportunity to see the great man.

We heard:

Ludwig van Beethoven – Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major
Anton Bruckner – Symphony No 7 in E major

Emanual Ax tinkled the ivories in the first piece of the night.

Here is a link to the BBC stub for this event.

I don’t think this was the best rendition of Bruckner 7 I have ever seen…nor even the best rendition by Haitink, as we returned three years later to see the great man perform the same piece again, with the Berlin Philharmonic that time…but I think the following panning by Rick Jones in the Standard is a bit unfair.