I've just learned via Stephen Baggaley, a Facebook friend in Australia, that one of my favorite conductors, Sir Charles Mackerras, died a few days ago. I have a pile of his recordings on Vanguard, Hyperion, Telarc, RCA, and at least a dozen permutations of EMI, but the sole concert I saw him conduct was memorable — an incandescent performance of Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ with the Orchestra of St. Luke's (the soloists included the incomparable and still sorely missed Lorraine Hunt Lieberson). Australian ABC will be broadcasting a tribute to the maestro Saturday (late Friday in North America -- link to their mp3/m3u stream here).
