Berlin / London 15-07-2010
Sir Charles Mackerras - foto- Wikipedia
Charles Mackerras, the Australian conductor who guest conducted the ‘Berliner Philharmoniker’ orchestra on several occaisions, and was one of the first in the West to fully appreciate and promote the genius of Leos Janacek outside of his native Czechoslovakia, as it then was called, has died aged 84.
All through his long career he promoted the merits of the operas of Janacek – and from obscurity [in the West] in the 50’s up until today when Janacek’s operas are played in all the major opera houses worldwide – one could conclude that they are there very much because of his pioneering efforts, promotion and belief in them.
He won a British Council Scholarship in 1947, enabling him to study conducting with Václav Talich, the great Czech conductor at the Prague Academy of Music.
After this brief stay in Prague and upon returning to England from Prague in 1948, Mackerras began his life-long association with Sadler’s Wells Opera, now English National Opera, conducting, among others, Janáček, Handel, Gluck, Bach, and Donizetti.
Leos JANACEK - www.ota-berlin.de
In the 1950s, well before the “authenticity” movement had come to general notice, Mackerras focussed on the study and practical realization of period performance techniques, culminating in his landmark 1959 recording of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks using the original wind band instrumentation. In his 1965 performance of The Marriage of Figaro, he added the ornamentation in a historically informed style.
Mackerras himself judged his work with Leos Janáček as his single most important legacy to music.
In 1951 he conducted the British premiere of Káťa Kabanová.
He was also a noted authority on Mozart’s operas and he knew them so well that if the scores of Mozart’s operas were all somehow destroyed, Mackerras would probably be able to reconstruct them from memory!
Historical information on the life of Mr Mackerras from Wikipedia-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mackerras
For a short bio of Leos Janacek please see:
http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/composers/2008/05/21/biography-of-leos-janacek/
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Tags: Charles Mackerras, leos janacek
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