Sir Charles Mackerras Essentials

Sir Charles Mackerras conducted an astonishing range of repertoire, and brought a fresh approach to almost everything he touched. His greatest passion, however, was for the music of Janáček, whose operas he championed both in the opera house and in the studio with a unique fusion of clarity and loving intensity. Mackerras was born to Australian parents in Schenectady, New York, in 1925; the family returned with him to Sydney two years later. After a spell as an orchestral oboist in Sydney, then at Sadler’s Wells (now English National Opera) in London, he won a scholarship to study conducting with the legendary Václav Talich in Prague, becoming fluent in Czech in the process. Returning to London, he became an energetic champion of historically informed performance long before it became fashionable. His groundbreaking recording of Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks (1749) restored the original wind-band scoring, and in 1965 he performed Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (1786) with vocal ornamentation, drawing praise from some and fury from others. Mackerras’ relish for light classical music is evident in his ballet based on music by Sullivan, Pineapple Poll (1951), which was a huge success. In his latter years, Mackerras returned to Mozart, recording what is often regarded as among the finest ever accounts of the composer’s final four symphonies. He died in London in 2010.