Obituary: Sir Charles Mackerras

Published on Thursday 15 July 2010 19:36

Conductor who oversaw many memorable performances at the Edinburgh festivals

Born. 17 November, 1925, in New York.

Died: 14 July, 2020 in London, aged 84.

The contribution Charles Mackerras made to the broadening of the musical repertoire during his distinguished career cannot be underestimated. In the 1950s, well before the "authenticity" movement had come to general notice, Mackerras pioneered the study and practical realisation of period performance techniques, culminating in his landmark 1959 recording of Handel's Fireworks Music.

In the same decade while music director at Sadler's Wells Opera (now English National Opera, or ENO), he single-handedly championed the music of Janacek. Mackerras was a prolific musician and an acknowledged Mozart specialist, but he also promoted the music of Arthur Sullivan.

Mackerras has been a tremendous, galvanising presence on the British musical scene for more than 50 years. He was a down-to-earth Aussie whose pragmatism and passion, wit and warmth, scholarship and musical sensitivity have provided audiences with memorable evenings both in the opera house and in the concert hall.

Mackerras is especially well known and admired in Scotland where he has a long and fruitful association with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO).

His performances at many Edinburgh Festivals are now a central part of the Festival's folklore - his 2006 conducting of all the Beethoven symphonies is fondly remembered: indeed the then Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) director, Brian McMaster, called the cycle "a valediction to a life in music". His series of Mozart operas in concert over several festivals brought huge acclaim from the critics.

His 50th year with the festival was marked in 2002 when he conducted operas by Mozart, Donizetti and Handel. In August 2008, Mackerras was made the new honorary president of the EIF Society. He was only the second person to hold the post; the previous holder had been Sir Yehudi Menuhin.

Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras was born in New York to Australian parents and the family moved to Sydney when he was two. He studied oboe and piano at the Conservatorium of Music in Sydney before going to London in 1946. The following year he went to Prague to study conducting. The visit was cut short when the Communists took over Czechoslovakia but Mackerras had discovered Janacek and when he became a conductor with the Sadler's Wells he was able to introduce his music to the UK. As early as 1951 Mackerras conducted the British premiere of Kata Kabanova.

At this time he also arranged the music from the D'Oyly Carte operas into a ballet, Pineapple Poll, which was a mainstay of the Royal Ballet's repertory for many years. Indeed, Mackerras's first appearance at the EIF in 1952 was conducting the ballet at the Empire Theatre. Such an enterprise demonstrates his musical versatility, as do his visits to Scottish Opera. In 1978 he conducted a double bill comprising the chamber opera by Gustav Holst, Savitiri, in a production by Graham Vick and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, directed by John Copley.

His work with the SCO led not only to establishing the orchestra as a major force in UK music but also brought many important recording contracts. He was the orchestra's principal guest conductor from 1992 to 1995 and then became its conductor Laureate. His work with them was special. Mackerras brought the stamp of benign authority to rehearsals and performances. As Sue Lee, an assistant principal at the SCO, recalls: "We did have a very special relationship with Charles and when he comes to visit it feels like your favourite uncle coming to visit. He has this amazing attention to detail. He turns everything inside out and goes back to the original scores."

Mackerras conducted at all the major opera houses of the world and with the leading orchestras. His many recordings have included all the Janacek operas with the Vienna Philharmonic, eight Mozart concertos with the SCO (with Alfred Brendel) and with the Czech Philharmonic conducting Dvork's Slavonic Dances and Smetana's Ma Vlast.

He served as music director of both English National Opera (1970-77) and Welsh National Opera (1987-92) and held posts with the Philharmonia, the San Francisco and the Prague Chamber Orchestras. In 1973 he conducted the opening concert at the Sydney Concert Hall (with Birgit Nilsson as soloist) and in 1980 was the first non-Briton to conduct the Last Night of the Proms.

Alison Mitchell, principal flute with the SCO, says: "It was always a highlight of our year to work with Sir Charles. He inspired us to give everything we could and to delight in the music we were playing both in rehearsal and in performance. His space and timing in the music was perfect for us.

"He was such a wonderful musician and such a giving person. Sir Charles's performances at the festivals of the Brahms and Beethoven Symphonies and the Mozart piano concertos with Alfred Brendel are fantastic experiences that I will keep with me for the rest of my days."

Among his many honours Mackerras was knighted in 1979, made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1997 and a Companion of Honour in 2005. In 1947, he married Judy Wilkins, who survives him, as does one daughter: a second having predeceased him.