BR-KLASSIK is dedicating a second portrait edition to the eminent Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink, containing a total of 9 CDs. Bernard Haitink died in October 2021, he would have turned 95 in March 2024. These exceptional live recordings document the long-standing and intensive collaboration between Bernard Haitink, the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the BRSO. Since Haitink conducted a subscription concert for the first time in 1958, he repeatedly conducted the BRSO for over six decades – sometimes in the Herkulessaal of the Residenz, sometimes in the Philharmonie im Gasteig. The orchestras’ musicians and singers were just as happy to work with him as the Bayerischer Rundfunk’s sound engineers. As a continuation of the Portrait Box released in February 2019, this new edition offers an excellent overview of the joint interpretations of masterpieces from the Viennese Classical period as well as the German-Austrian late Romantic period and the 20th century: outstanding compositions by Beethoven, Bruckner, Dvořák, Mahler and Shostakovich.

The box includes complete recordings of Beethoven’s Symphony no.9 (CD 1) – a recording from 2019 – Bruckner’s Symphonies no.4 (CD 2) from 2012, no.7 (CD 3) from 1981 and no.8 (CD 4 / CD 5) from 1993 as well as his Te Deum (CD 4) from 2010, Dvořák’s Symphony no.7 from 1981 and his Scherzo capriccioso (CD 6) from 1981, Mahler’s Symphony no.7 (CD 7) from 2011 as well as from Shostakovich the Symphonies no.8 (CD 8) from 2006 and no.15 (CD 9) from 2015.