Word: haitink
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Boston Symphony Orchestra, sporting a full program of internationally renowned conductors and soloists, rounded out another fine summer at the Tangle-wood Music Center. Perhaps the most exciting of the thrice-weekly concerts was that involving both Bernard Haitink and Gidon Kremer...
...Haitink, who had been conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam for more than twenty years, led the BSO in a performance of the Prelude to the First Act of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnburg, the Sibelius Violin Concerto, and Brahms' First Symphony. Kremer joined the orchestra as soloist in the concerto...
...born section, on their home Teutonic turf, played creditably but sometimes overpowered the strings. It wasn't that the brass were too loud--the strings just couldn't keep up. In fact, even Haitink's tight meter could not keep the strings from sounding a bit tired at the end of the piece...
...last movement, Kremer's articulations gained still more grace than in the previous two. His strong rendering of the famous passage on the E string reflected true mastery of the instrument. The balance between the soloist and orchestra towards the end of the piece was impeccable; Haitink and Kremer returned to the stage for numerous standing ovations...
Perhaps not too surprisingly, it is in the ancillary "filler" pieces where Haitink really shines with surprising passion - the Tragic and Academic Festive Overtures, the two serenades, the Variations on a Theme by Haydn, and the only three Hungarian dances that Brahms rescored for orchestra. The two overtures have plenty of flair to spare, and the Hungarian dances, number one in particular, simply scintillate. Haitink gives sensitive accounts of both serenades, and the jaunty conclusion of the Serenade in D deserves special mention...