Czech mate

For a man who was told by Neville Cardus not to bother leaving Australia to find his true voice in Europe, Charles Mackerras has prospered to a degree that must have been unimaginable when he was growing up playing the oboe in Sydney. A knight of the realm, a Companion of Honour, and a recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society gold medal, Mackerras was recently given a lifetime achievement award by Gramophone magazine in recognition of his services to the musical life of his adopted country.

Few conductors have his range, and few are regarded more highly by musicians, in the concert hall and the opera house. This week he is in Berlin, performing Mozart and Shostakovich with the city’s famous Philharmonic, but it is not on the grandest stages that he has made his reputation, for he has never been one of the ferociously ambitious baton-wavers, eager for ‘top’ posts and recording contracts.