Honorary board

Bernard Haitink (1929-2021) as a conductor, following in the footsteps of Willem Mengelberg and then Eduard van Beinum, especially during his Eurovision Christmas concerts, which always centred on a Mahler symphony, further shaped the special connection, which the Netherlands, and the Concertgebouw Orchestra in particular, had. From his first registrations for the Philips label (still on LP!) from the 1960s up to and including the last Mahler concert in Amsterdam with the Ninth Symphony, Haitink, who has since relinquished the conducting baton, showed his inimitable feel for the double bottoms in Mahler's music. 

What sounds jolly can also be interpreted as a far-reaching irony, and even the grievous sections can be a camouflage for a sunlight that does not yet manage to penetrate. During interviews, Haitink repeatedly expressed that he was sometimes afraid of Mahler because it exposed its soul, sometimes almost too much, to us and how to render this without becoming larmoyant or too violent. Although he had already quit, Haitink was still immediately willing to take a seat on our honourary board.

Starting out as the Concertgebouw Orchestra's youngest concertmaster, Jaap van Zweden (1960) was brought up on the Amsterdam Mahler tradition, so to speak, with his mother's milk. His guide in this was Bernard Haitink, from whom, after all, he had to pass on directions to the entire orchestra. Just as Mahler showed the way to Mengelberg, Haitink showed the way to Van Zweden. Meanwhile, Jaap van Zweden has become one of the world's best-known Mahler conductors and he often says, his own Mahler sound with the orchestras is grafted onto the sound of the Concertgebouw. At all the Dutch orchestras of which he was chief, Mahler was on the menu as a 'core' composer. And he has carried this tradition into his current position as chief of the New York Philharmonic as well. It could have been so beautiful: a Dutch chief with a great feel for Mahler together with an American Orchestra that has still worked under Mahler during with Mahler Festival 2020. 

But the corona crisis put a stop to this too, as well as to Van Sweden's arrival with the New Yorkers in the planned Mahler Days in May 2021. But the future will teach us: Mahler is never lost on any of the four members of our Honorary Board. When we asked Van Zweden if he too would be willing to join, the answer was: but of course, with all the love!

At this point, the Gustav Mahler Foundation Netherlands also likes to honour those who have made a special contribution to the appreciation of Mahler and his music in the Netherlands.

Herman J. Nieman stood at the cradle of the Gustav Mahler Foundation Netherlands. First as a branch of the Internationale Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft in Vienna, later as an independent Dutch foundation. He published the foundation's 'Mededelingen' and also stood at the cradle of the Mahler News.

Willem de Vries devoted himself to "Die Sache Mahlers" for many years. He edited "The Mahler Bulletin" from 1988 - 1994. After this, he joined the editorial board of the Mahler News. For many years he was part of this. He was also a member of the board of the Gustav Mahler Stichting Nederland for many years.