Sir Charles Mackerras 

Lecture delivered by Sir Charles Mackerras  

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Perhaps you can imagine what I feel in my heart receiving this great honour bestowed on me by the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts after spending more than half a century studying, interpreting and publishing the works of the great Moravian Master. I first heard Janáček’s opera in the autumn of 1947, when Václav Talich conducted Káťa Kabanová at the Prague’s National Theatre. The impression this performance left me with was so strong that I decided to study this author intensively, this author whose thinking seemed so unusual and his music so original that it had, as I expected, no obvious predecessors.

During my one-year stay at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, I managed to study Taras Bulba with the young Jarmil Burghauser and watch many performances of Janáček’s operas in both Prague’s opera houses, including performances by a guest Brno opera ensemble at the Divadlo 5. května. During these various performances, I noticed significant stylistic differences between the Brno and Prague versions, especially in the sound of orchestras. I attributed this fact to the different styles of individual conductors. At that time, I was not yet aware that professor Talich used a modified orchestral version of Káťa Kabanová and The Cunning Little Vixen, and that Jenůfa has been actually performed only in its modified form.

After finishing my studies at the Prague Academy in 1947 and 1948, I returned to London, where I worked as a conductor and répétiteur at Sadler’s Wells Opera. In 1952, I staged Káťa Kabanová in London, and over the course of ten years, I also performed other Janáček operas in Britain, especially The Makropulos Affair and From the House of the Dead. In 1960 I made my first recording of Janáček (Sinfonietta and 4 opera overtures). 

That very same year, I was honoured by an invitation to visit Janáček’s archive in Brno. I enthusiastically accepted this offer, because it was my first opportunity to study Janáček’s somewhat unusual manuscripts and see for myself how and why the printed scores of his operas differ so much from the original autographs.

It was there that I first met Dr. Straková, who at that time worked as the director of the archive on Smetana Street, and also Osvald Chlubna, who was at that time one of the last living persons to study composition under the tutorage of Janáček himself. They were both extremely friendly to me and my wife. Dr. Straková showed me many of Janáček’s manuscripts, so I had the opportunity to see for the first time how the composer created the composition from the first sketches to the final work.

It was fascinating to notice, for example, in the rhapsody of Taras Bulba, how differing forms the work took from its beginning to its final form. I was thus able to examine many issues with the published versions of Káťa Kabanová and The Makropulos Affair and even rediscover the manuscript of two intermezzos in Káťa Kabanová, which the Master added for a performance at the German Opera in Prague (in parts where rapid scene changes were impractical). I had the opportunity to include these two small “inter-plays” in a performance of Káta Kabanová in Brno. They were later published in an edition of the opera I prepared for the Universal Edition as the first in a series of editions that attempt to combine Janáček’s original instrumentation and dynamics with possible practical designs that help solve many problematic moments in sound balance caused by Janáček’s characteristic style.

It was during my visit to Brno in 1960, when I also began to study a copy of Jenůfa, into which Kovařovic marked his changes in red. That was the moment I became interest in staging this opera without the mentioned corrections. Ever since, the appreciation for Janáček’s original Jenůfa has shifted majorly. It was recorded and released three times all over the world in a version which, together with my colleague John Tyrrell, we call the Brno version. I am very happy that our version of Janáček’s most played (and most famous) opera found its way back to Brno, on the day of the centenary of its world premiere, on 21 January 2004.

When I think back to my first stay in Brno, I remember Osvald Chlubna and Dr. Straková taking us on a day trip to Hukvaldy. There we had the opportunity to see the source of inspiration Janáček drew from the Moravian meadows and groves, especially for the opera The Cunning Little Vixen. We were allowed to breathe in the spirit of Janáček’s certain pantheistic philosophy here, as expressed in The Cunning Little Vixen and the Glagolitic Mass. We also experienced and felt some of the atmosphere of Moravian rural life, we saw Janáček’s birthplace and the school where his father taught. Back then, both places looked exactly as they must have looked in the composer’s youth. One could almost imagine the Master walking down the street with Jenůfa and Kostelnička, Barena and Kamila. Oh how well he knew the hardships of unrequited love!

Even though I have been to Brno many times, be it during my studies into Janáček or when conducting his works, I always look back to Hukvaldy with a special nostalgia. It was there that I felt closer to the essence of Janáček than ever before or since.

I am very honoured by the honorary title bestowed on me by the Academy named after the greatest son of Hukvaldy. I am very much looking forward to our performance of the Glagolitic Mass, in which Janáček most expressed his faith in humanity and the power of nature. The orchestra and choir will certainly be able to implement its intention better than in 1927!

I would like to end my speech with a quote from Janáček’s letter from 1925 (the year of my birth) on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate awarded to him by Masaryk University:

“In my book of life you can see:

The growth from within,
conviction not to give up,
to not covet recognition,
but always contribute with your piece,
to make the field flourish,
as it was destined.

Be greeted!
Your devoted
Dr. ph. Leoš Janáček

Brno, 12 February 1925.“

Laudatio delivered by doc. Ivo Medek  

Your Magnificence, Spectabiles, Honorabiles,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Guests.

It is my great honour, but also an extraordinary pleasure to propose at this ceremonial meeting of the JAMU Artistic Board on behalf of the Faculty of Music that an honorary doctorate be awarded to one of the most important personalities in the contemporary world of music and to a great admirer and supporter of Czech music – to the famous conductor Sir Charles Mackerras.

He has been proving his relationship to our country, its music and especially the work of L. Janáček – a composer whose name is proudly borne by our alma mater – for decades on prestigious stages all around the world.

His participation in this year’s jubilee Janáček Festival is just another proof of that.

Anyone who visited yesterday’s performance of The Excursions of Mr. Brouček with Sir Charles behind the conductor’s desk, felt after just a few beats how amazingly close he was to Janáček’s feelings and thoughts, how he understood his soul and how he was able to put this understanding into the interpretation of his works with astonishing ease, as if there was nothing easier than conducting the compositions of the author whose works are approached with some apprehension and respect from the biggest names of the entire world of conducting. However, behind that ease, there is detailed knowledge of Janáček’s compositional and theoretical work, amassed over decades of studies, supported by vast conducting experience, essential musicality and other aspects, including his eloquence in the Czech language.

What was said here about the interpretation of Janáček’s work also fully applies to the works of Mozart, Brahms, Dvořák, Beethoven or Britten. With this great potential, he can open eyes, minds and hearts again and again, first of the orchestra players and through them of the listeners around the world.

If I were to delve deeper into the activities of Sir Charles Mackerras, this laudatio would turn into a several-hour lecture. So let us look at him primarily through the prism of Czech music, which intertwines with his life as a clearly visible thread.

He came into closer contact with Czech music while still studying in Prague, where he learned mainly from Václav Talich. In this context, I cannot but mention the concert at this year’s Prague Spring, dedicated to the anniversary of Václav Talich, at which the Master performed, among others, Janáček’s Taras Bulba. But let’s go back in history for a moment. Sir Charles made his debut as an opera conductor at Sadler’s Wells, later the English National Opera, where he returned – after four years as the first conductor of the Hamburg State Opera – as artistic director from 1970 to 1977. Increasingly frequent contact with Janáček’s music led Sir Charles to staging of the of the famous Janáček cycle at the Welsh National Opera. At that point in time, I already perceived him as a specialist in Janáček; he was recording for renowned record companies (e.g. with the Vienna Philharmonic for DECCA) and winning a number of awards – including the Grand Prix de la Critique in Paris for The Cunning Little Vixen in 1995. In the same year he recorded a non-traditional version of the Glagolitic Mass with the Danish State Symphony Orchestra. He also brought Janáček to the USA, where he conducted the Makropulos Affair and Káťa Kabanová at the Metropolitan Opera, and to Australia, where he directed Jenůfa in 1993–1996. During this period he also worked as the first guest conductor at the Opera Company in San Francisco, where he performed Dvořák’s Rusalka with the famous Renée Fleming in the lead role. He then recorded Rusalka for DECCA with the Czech Philharmonic in 1998.

Sir Charles Mackerras is a conductor of the very highest level, so his scope naturally includes more than just Czech works. He is a recognised expert on the 18th and 19th centuries. His performances of Mozart dazzled everyone at the Welsh National Opera (where he is an emeritus conductor), at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, at the Salzburgen Festspiele, where “his” The Marriage of Figaro with the Vienna Philharmonic was the highlight of the whole festival, but also in Prague in 1991 when he conducted Don Giovanni on the occasion of the bicentennial of Mozart’s death and the reopening of the Estates Theatre. To mark Mozart’s anniversary, he recorded a set of Mozart’s symphonies and serenades with Prague Chamber Orchestra. He recorded with a number of other orchestras – for example, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, with which he recorded Mozart’s major opera and Beethoven’s Fidelia for SONY.

In 1994, he received the award for the best opera recording of the year for his unique recording of B. Britten’s Gloriana. Mackerras’ recordings of instrumental works, such as Beethoven’s and Mahler’s symphonies with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for EMI or Brahms’s symphonies for TELARC, also received similar laurels.

Sir Charles Mackerras has received numerous awards and honours for his work. Let us recall some of them: in 1974 it was the Order of the British Empire, in 1979 he was admitted to the nobility in England for merits in the field of music, in 1996 he was awarded the Czech Medal of Merit and in 1997 he was awarded the highest Order of Australia. He has been awarded a number of honorary doctorates in his life: for example, by the universities of Hull, York, Prague, Oxford, Sydney and Melbourne. In 2003, he was awarded the title of C. H. (Companion of Honour) by the Queen of England.

In conclusion, I would like to wish Sir Charles, on behalf of all of us in this great chamber – and I dare say on behalf of all music lovers – good health, a firm hand, unceasing vigour and many, many active years, so that we may have the fortune of watching his mastery on stages all over the world, and hopefully in the Czech Republic as well. The audience in Brno can already look forward to a concert on February 5, when the Master will conduct the Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra with an extremely attractive programme of Janáček’s works: the Danube Symphony, the Violin Concert of the Wandering of a Little Soul and the Glagolitic Mass. Once again – as is the case every time Sir Charles Mackerras arrives here – Janáček’s inspiration will return to Brno with him – as always skilfully transformed by a great expert into an unforgettable experience. All this to our great pleasure and joy.

Doc. Ing. Ivo Medek, Ph. D.
Dean of the Faculty of Music

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