Sir Charles Mackerras (1925 - 2010)

The terribly sad news arrived this morning that the grand, glorious and gorgeous Charles Mackerras had died in London, aged 84. He seemed to me one of those people whose energy was so boundless you just imagined they would live forever. And now he's gone, but that energy will live on through countless recordings, through the people — performers and audiences alike — with whom he shared it, and through the immeasurable legacy he leaves the musical world. He was one of the first conductors whose name I knew, thanks to a CD of Ruth Ann Swenson for which he conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; and if nothing else, I owe him an enormous debt of gratitude for the presence of Janacek in the standard operatic repertoire — and by extension, in my heart, where his is some of the music I'd find it hardest to live without. For that, and for so many other things, I say thank you, Sir Charles. My thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues. He will be sorely missed.

Comments

[david]

I have been endlessly playing today the live 2006 ENO Makropulos Case as my personal tribute and as the most wonderful expression of his conducting of the glorious music that he loved and championed!! Boy what a gaping hole he leaves!!!