Bernard Haitink looks positively spry — bright-eyed, perky and relaxed — for a man approaching his 80th birthday. The Dutch conductor, a key figure in British musical life for almost half a century, will celebrate the beginning of his ninth decade on March 4 in his native city, Amsterdam; then, 10 days later, he will be with the orchestra most indelibly linked with his name — the Royal Concertgebouw, in London’s Barbican Hall — for two concerts in the Great Performers series.

The programmes are classic Haitink: Mozart’s Haffner Symphony and Beethoven’s Seventh flanking one of his party pieces, Debussy’s La Mer, in the first; Bruckner’s unfinished Ninth and Schumann’s Piano Concerto, with Murray Perahia, in the second.

These composers represent a tiny fraction of his vast repertoire, acquired over a 55-year career, but they are among the ones he returns to with most pleasure. They are his carte-blanche choices, emblematic of the music for which his public in the capital holds him in such high esteem. Though he now lives just outside Lucerne, in Switzerland, London has remained his second home, thanks partly to his British wife, Patricia (a former viola player at the ROH, whom he met and married when he was music director at Covent Garden) and partly to his unbroken 35-year sequence of UK appointments: the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1967-79), Glyndebourne (1977-88), and the ROH (1988-2002).

We met in the middle of (a comparatively mild) January at his London home, an apartment a short walk from Sloane Square. Haitink was in town to have an MOT on his pacemaker. He touches the table and says he hasn’t had any heart problems since the attack that laid him low during the closure of the ROH 10 years ago.

He certainly shows no sign of slowing down. The London stopover was a moment’s respite before he embarked on a gruelling 15-concert tour of the Far East with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, of which he has been principal conductor — an interregnum between the music directorships of Daniel Barenboim and Riccardo Muti — for the past four years. Haitink has never seemed entirely at home in America — “I always feel a bit confused there,” he self-deprecates — so the appointment was unexpected.

“Totally unexpected, but these are sometimes the best things in life,” he says. “I love Chicago because of the freedom of the programmes I can conduct. It can be so frustrating when directors of orchestras say, ‘Oh, no, we don’t want that.’ There, I have free choice. The orchestra is always so well prepared. This has been a wonderful four years for me.”

Going to Chicago meant temporarily parting company with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and its famous hall, which has often been compared to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and Haitink concedes that they are probably his two favourite venues in the world. (Both are 19th-century and built in the classic “shoe box” style.)

Despite the lack of great historic halls with perfect acoustics in London, Haitink has remained committed to the city, even though he has recently parted company with the LPO and favoured the Barbican over Festival Hall. What happened to his relationship with the LPO? “Well, the LSO was very active, and keen for me to conduct them, which I never did when I was with the LPO,” he explains. “They asked me several times and I always said no. When I left Glyndebourne, the LSO jumped in to invite me to do things I just wanted to do. Then I just drifted away \. You know, it’s the same with the Vienna Philharmonic. There is no animosity, but I just drifted away, and at my age I don’t have time in my schedule for everyone.”

Despite the relative lack of funding in London, and its less than ideal halls, his admiration for its musicians remains undimmed. “Like Pierre Boulez, who used to say that London has the best pool of musicians in the world, I love it here. You can play any piece, any style you want. I know life is difficult for London’s musicians, but they don’t lose their love and feeling for the music. In a way, they thrive on this hectic, idiotic life they lead.”

He compares conditions for the Concertgebouw favourably to those of the London independent band. “They recently got a 15% rise in their subsidy, and the perks they get — the pensions, six weeks’ paid holiday — are unknown to London’s freelance musicians.”

Looking back on his 55-year career, Haitink seems an incurable optimist. He rejoices in the fact that he has conducted three generations of Concertgebouw players and that young people everywhere still seem to want to join. He also rejects the Cassandras and gloom-mongers who predict the demise of great art music: “Oh, classical music has always been doomed. I remember, in the early 1960s, people saying, ‘You’re playing for a grey audience.’ Now, almost 50 years later, I am still playing for a grey audience. Of course, we should encourage young people to come to classical music, but older people deserve their place in the sun, too.”

Here, he speaks up for his own generation; and if Haitink at 80 is anything to go by, classical music must be an elixir for a long and rewarding life.

Bernard Haitink conducts the Royal Concertgebouw at the Barbican, EC2, on March 14 and 15

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