Haitink’s grand finale

After six-and-a-half decades on the podium, Bernard Haitink was incredibly lucky to conduct himself into retirement in September 2019, rather than simply vanish in the orchestral silence of 2020. And how lucky I was to witness at close quarters his final, transformative Bruckner performances in London and Lucerne, the latter of which was caught on film for my forthcoming BBC documentary.

Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony was the work he chose both for his first British appearance in Liverpool in 1961 and at his BBC Proms debut five years later. By wonderful symmetry,