A much loved conductor

Bernard Haitink's farewell concert at London's Royal Opera,
as experienced by ROBERT ANDERSON

When Bernard Haitink came to the Royal Opera as Musical Director in 1987, he could not possibly have foreseen the number of resignations that would rock the house, the problems of the wander years when the future of Covent Garden and refurbishment of the building seemed matter only for controversy, or indeed the magnificence of the restored edifice, with the Floral Hall as grand social annexe, providing also one of the finest views over an acceptable part of London.

Haitink himself had always the trump card of resignation up his own sleeve; that he did not use it is tribute as much to his own integrity as to his indispensability. Perhaps his loyalty was always directed more to his musical colleagues than to the management, and even beyond them to the music he so eloquently performed. He will best know how magisterially he has grown as a conductor in the fifteen Covent Garden years; the evidence was before us in his Saturday Farewell on 13 July 2002.

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