The BBC will dedicate a Proms concert in his memory. Glyndebourne, where he conducted Cosi fan tutte only last month, will commemorate him tonight. Sir George Christie, past director of Glyndebourne, said: ‘The passion he brought to his performances – which he tempered with scholarly research – combined with his devotion to and belief in the composers whose works were entrusted to him and his baton set him apart from the others. He never imposed himself between the audience and the composer and this in turn commanded total devotion to and belief in him. He embraced a huge spectrum of the repertory, but it was his performances of Handel, Mozart and Janáček which stick most adhesively in my memory….and he was an enchanting man.’
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic recalls his ‘outstanding interpretations’ on record of the nine Beethoven symphonies, while the Scottish Chamber Orchestra remembered a relationship of 20 years in which he showed ‘almost unparallelled mastery of music across a huge range of styles and periods.’
Tony Faulkner, record producer, pays tribute here to his ‘inexhautible energy’ and to the amount that everyone who worked with Charles Mackerras learned from this delightful artist and man.
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