/// MISSION BRIEFING

After 65 years at the rostrum, Bernard Haitink is making his departure from the concert stage at the age of 90. In his farewell concert at the Salzburg Festival, featuring the Vienna Philharmonic and pianist Emanuel Ax, the maestro conducts two tragical-lyrical works that mark the zenith of the respective composers’ creative powers - Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7. The Dutch conductor was to enchant his audience, orchestra and apparently also himself in his final performance of the work.