Bernard Haitink
(c) Lucerne Festival/Deuber
Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink died Thursday at home in London, aged 92. He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his wife and family. Haitink’s career began in the 1950s with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. With the Concertgebouw Orchestra in his native Amsterdam, Haitink had a long association. He was chief conductor there from 1961 to 1988.
In 1967 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which he led until 1979.
In 1987 and 1988 he left for the Royal Opera in London where he held the musical directorship. From 1995 to 2004 he was also principal guest conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Between 1978 and 1988 Haitink was musical director of the Glyndebourne Opera Festival.
In 2002, he took over as principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden. Due to alleged disagreements in the selection of his successor, Haitink resigned his post prematurely in 2004. In 2006, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra appointed him principal conductor because the post of music director had not been filled since Daniel Barenboim’s retirement that year.
In 2019, he conducted his last concert in Lucerne, Switzerland.
