Conductors are often charismatic figures, and in the internet era it helps if they are also glamorous, photogenic, and media-savvy. Bernard Haitink, born in Amsterdam in 1929, was none of these things, preferring in the course of an illustrious 65-year career to let the music do the talking. Haitink initially trained as a violinist, but within seven years of his podium debut in 1954 with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, he began a 27-year tenure as chief conductor of Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, one of the world’s finest. The Concertgebouw period defined Haitink’s reputation as a self-effacing musician of unassailable integrity. Together they recorded the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Bruckner, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and Schumann, performances that studiously avoided cheap thrills and posturing. Listeners warmed to Haitink’s approach, which mingled excitement with a thoughtful appreciation of a piece’s deeper implications. Haitink also held important orchestral positions with the London Philharmonic, the Dresden Staatskapelle, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and guest-conducted widely. He excelled in opera, too, and served as music director of Glyndebourne Opera (1978-88) and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (1987-2002). Haitink gave his final concert aged 90 in 2019 and passed away two years later, an undisputed colossus of the conducting profession.