“If I am to be remembered for anything, then it will probably be for Janacek. Nobody needed me to say that Mozart, Haydn and Handel were great composers, even if I managed to show things in their music that may not have been heard before, whereas Janacek had nobody to speak for him.” – Sir Charles Mackerras
Just as Leonard Bernstein is credited with re-establishing Mahler's symphonies in the repertoire, Sir Charles Mackerras, who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 84, will go down in music history as the man who rescued the music of Leos Janacek from obscurity, which he discovered during his student days in Prague seven decades ago. Sir Charles' performances and recordings of Janacek's operas, masses and orchestral works remain the gold standard; this listener, for one, will forever be grateful.