Two heroes died this week, here’s Norman Lebrecht on Sir Charles Mackerras. People rave about his Mozart and Haydn, I swear by his Brahms:
“His achievements, in my view, are twofold. He was the first, after
Neville Marriner, to seek fusion between period-instrument practice and
modern orchestras, achieving wonderfully transparent Mozart and
Beethoven performances, especially with his last ensemble, the Scottish
Chamber Orchestra. He had been due to work with them this summer at
the Edinburgh Festival (he was also down to conduct a Viennese Night at
the BBC Proms the week after next and, never a narrow mind, he was
irrationally fond of Gilbert and Sullivan.)…”
Another tribute on Classical Source.
And Harvey Pekar, who wrote jazz columns for me back at Public Arts, and received the highest artistic tribute from Paul Giamatti‘s performance in the 2003 movie American Splendor. The New York Times quotes sources calling him “the original blogger” and the “Seinfeld before Seinfeld.”
