Sir Jeffrey Tate - who was knighted this April by Prince William for his services to British music - suffered a heart attack Friday afternoon in Lombardy whilst touring the Accademia Carrara art gallery at Bergamo.
The iconic conductor (and chief of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra), who famously attracted much attention to the little-known disabling conditions Spina Bifida (a neural tube birth defect - in which the spinal column fails to properly fuse around the spinal cord whilst in utero) and kyphosis (an exaggerated forward curvature of the spine) - both of which he struggled with his entire life - was considered renowned in his field, an expert interpreter of Wagner and Strauss, a champion of modern British composers, and, to my taste, was one of the finest Mozart conductors of the 20th and present century.
He was 74 when he passed.
Rest In Peace, Sir Tate.
Listen below to an excerpt of the Benedictus from Herr Beethoven's Missa Solemnis (I couldn't find a full version on YouTube), performed by the English Chamber Orchestra & Tallis Chamber Choir with Sir Jeffrey Tate at the helm. A fine rendition:
Obituaries:
Learn more about Jeffrey Tate here at Unraveling Musical Myths:
-Rose.
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