Image Courtesy of Telarc
July 15, 2010
World-renowned Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras died yesterday of cancer in London at the age of 84.
With his passing, Mackerras leaves behind an indelible legacy on both performance and repertoire as the former principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and as one of the most visible champions of Czech music. Over the course of his lengthy and distinguished career, Mackerras held posts at several prominent orchestras and opera houses, including the Sadler's Wells Opera orchestra, the Sydney Symphony and the English National Opera, where he was the director for nearly a decade.
Born in Schenectady, New York in 1925 but raised in Australia, Mackerras began his career as a musician with the Sydney Symphony, where he eventually attained the position of principal oboist. Shortly after immigrating to England in 1946, he studied under a British Council scholarship in Prague with perhaps the most famous Czech conductor of that time, Václav Talich. The apprenticeship had a clear and definite impact on the programmatic choices Mackerras would make over the course of his career; his championing of the works of Czech composer Leos Janacek was perhaps his single greatest contribution.
Among his many accomplishments, Mackerras will surely be remembered for his groundbreaking exploration of historically informed performance (HIP) practices. The 1959 recording of Mackerras conducting Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks (Testament), in which he employed authentic wind band instrumentation, is an early milestone in the HIP movement. In a bold attempt at historical interpretation that prefigured most period performance interpretations, Mackerras presented Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro with additional ornamentation derived from his own musicological research.
Mackerras received numerous honors during his career; he was awarded the Centenary Medal by the Federation of Australia, and was knighted at the New Year Honours celebration in 1979.
Mackerras is survived by his wife, Judy, and his daughter Catherine.
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by Daniel Eno
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