1999, he was named the honorary conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. In December 2012, following his advocacy for the RFO in the wake of proposed budget cuts to the orchestra and Dutch music in general, Haitink accepted the title of patron of the RFO. In March 2014, Haitink told the Dutch newspaper Het Parool that he wished to renounce the title of RCO conductor laureate and to no longer guest-conduct the orchestra in protest of the orchestra's administrative management. In September 2015, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra announced a rapprochement with Haitink, with a scheduled guest-conducting engagement with the orchestra in the 2016–17 season. Haitink was principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1967 to 1979. He was also music director at Glyndebourne Opera in England from 1978 to 1988. He was music director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 1987 to 2002, where his musicianship was praised, though he also received criticism for his degree of attachment to the organisation as a whole. From 2002 to 2004, Haitink was chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden. His original contract with Dresden ran to 2006, but he resigned in 2004 over disputes with the Staatskapelle's Intendant, Gerd Uecker, over the orchestra's choice of successor. Haitink was principal guest conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2004, when he took on the new title of conductor emeritus. In addition, he appeared with l'Orchestre National de France and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). In the early 2000s, he recorded the complete Beethoven and Brahms symphony cycles with the LSO for the LSO Live label. Haitink was an honorary member of the Berlin Philharmonic. In April 2006, after an acclaimed two-week engagement in March 2006 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), the CSO appointed Haitink to the newly created position of principal conductor, effective from the 2006–07 season. The contract's duration was four years. Haitink had declined the CSO's offer to be music director, citing his age. Of this contract, Haitink said, "every conductor, including myself, has a sell-by date." He concluded his Chicago principal conductorship in June 2010 with a series of concerts of the complete Beethoven symphonies and was awarded the Theodore Thomas Medallion by the orchestra. In 2004, Haitink said he would no longer conduct opera, but he made exceptions in 2007, directing three performances of Parsifal in Zürich in March and April and five of