Sir Charles Mackerras - Gilbert & Sullivan: The Pirates of Penzance (1993)

An expert in a wide repertory of opera and orchestral music, conductor Charles Mackerras was especially well known for his interpretations of music by Leoš Janáček and other Czech composers. He was also one of the first conductors to apply the principles of the historical performance movement to operatic performances by modern orchestras.

Mackerras was born in Schenectady, New York, on November 17, 1925. His father was an Australian engineer, and when he was two, the family returned to Sydney, Australia, where he grew up. Mackerras took up the violin at age seven and later the flute. He also composed, writing a piano concerto at 12 and an opera in his early teens, and he got a taste of opera by performing in his school's Gilbert and Sullivan operetta productions. His parents tried to discourage his interest in music by sending him to a sports-oriented boarding school, The King's School, but he was expelled. His parents relented and enrolled him at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music. There he studied oboe, piano, and composition, making rapid progress; by the early '40s, he was finding work in Melbourne in various capacities. At age 19, he became principal oboist of the ABC Sydney Orchestra. In 1947, Mackerras departed for England, hoping to pursue conducting studies. He earned a scholarship that enabled him to study with conductor Václav Talich in Prague, and there he began a lifelong engagement with Janáček's operas.

Back in England, in 1948, Mackerras became assistant conductor of the Sadler's Wells opera company and made his debut in London, leading a performance of Strauss' Die Fledermaus. He made his recording debut during this period; his first recordings were on 78 rpm records. He remained in that post until 1954, conducting many operas, including the British premiere of Janáček's Káta Kabanová in 1951. From 1954 to 1956, he was the principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, but he retained what became a lifelong association with Sadler's Wells, which became the English National Opera in 1974. It was in the 1950s that Mackerras, well before such a thing was common, began to do research into historical performance practices. He gave the world premiere of the wind version of Handel's Water Music in 1959, and in 1965, he led a performance of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro in which he had the singers use historically authentic ornamentation.

Mackerras worked as a conductor at the Hamburg State Opera in Germany from 1966 to 1970 but returned to England to become music director at Sadler's Wells in 1970. He inaugurated the new Sydney Opera House in Australia in 1973, and the following year, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He would conduct many more operas there. In the mid-'70s, he renewed his youthful enthusiasm for Gilbert & Sullivan, leading the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company several times as a guest conductor. Mackerras was chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony from 1982 to 1985 (he was the first Australian to hold the post) and music director of the Welsh National Opera from 1987 to 1992; there, he mounted several acclaimed Janáček productions. In 1992, he became principal guest conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, remaining in the post until 1995 and continuing to lead the group as conductor laureate. From 1993 to 1996, he served as principal guest conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and also of the San Francisco Opera. In 1998, he became music director of the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and beginning in 1987, he often conducted the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. In later years, he served as president of Trinity College of Music, London. Mackerras remained in demand as a guest conductor until the end of his long life, leading the Vienna Philharmonic in the final concert of pianist Alfred Brendel in 2008. He conducted his last concert just weeks before his death in London on July 14, 2010. Mackerras' vast catalog of well over 275 recordings included many readings of Janáček operas. © James Manheim