Image: ©️ Todd Rosenberg
In a preview from a full interview for De Volkskrant, a Dutch paper, the conductor has officially confirmed that his upcoming concerts will be his last.
From the interview (free translation from Dutch):
“Listen (…), I’m 90. And when I say I take a sabbatical, it’s because I don’t want to say: I’m stopping. I don’t feel like all those official goodbyes, but the fact is that I will no longer conduct. “
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And so a conducting career span over 60 years is coming to an end without much fanfare. Haitink held some high profile posts during his distinguished career, including positions at the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), The London Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. But the most prolific was his tenure as chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, a post he has held from 1961 to 1988, which included some remarkable recordings made for the then-Dutch Phillips label.
