Charles Mackerras

Hardcover Cloth 298 pages. Condition Very Good Dust Jacket Very Good. Presumed First edition 2015. Handsome black boards and silver embossing shows off this Clean, tight, square copy with no marks, highlights or bookplates. Book Well in unread condition. Slight shelf wear. Back cover water damaged. An unclipped dust jacket smooth, clean and brilliant with slight shelf wear - a few wrinkles and chips. Not an ex-library, book club or remainder copy.

A biography with chapters written by those who worked with him, such as Janet Baker and Alfred Brendel, this is a celebration of an exceptional, creative life.

By the time of his death in 2010 at the age of 84, Sir Charles Mackerras had achieved widespread recognition, recorded extensively and developed into a conductor of major international significance. In addition to areas in which he already had forged a distinctive profile (Janácek, Mozart, Handel, Sullivan) he revisited - and rethought - much of the standard repertoire.

The last thirty years were particularly momentous in the coming to fruition of so manycherished not only the Janácek operas but the Gilbert and Sullivan series, the Mozart operas, the two Beethoven cycles, other projects with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (Schumann and Brahms at Edinburgh; the outstanding late Mozart) and at the Royal Opera House and the Met. Unspoilt by fame, and undeterred by personal tragedies and increasing physical frailty, he remained productive and for him music-making, whether with world-classsingers and orchestras or with students, was a kind of joyous oxygen that kept him going right to the end.

A detailed account of his life is complemented by contributions from performers and scholars who worked closely with Mackerras, as well as interviews with his family. The book is richly illustrated with photographs and documents, and includes a comprehensive discography along with listings of many of his concert and opera performances. While Sir Charles's whole life is considered, emphasis is given to his final quarter century, a period in which so many important projects were realized. This book celebrates and epitomizes an exceptional life.