Bernard Haitink, R.I.P.

One of the greatest and most recorded Conductors of all time died today, aged 92.  I truly didn’t appreciate him until I moved to Chicago in the mid eighties and then was privileged to see him guest Conduct over the next few decades.  So many great recordings, but my favorites are Symphonies of Shostakovich and Ralph Vaughn Williams.  In both cases he was the first Conductor of a different nationality than the Composers and he led definitive performances that made them seem less pigeonholed, and more Universal.
R.IP., Uncle Bernie