Mario Bernardi, modestly born in Kirkland Lake in 1930 and one of the most significant forces in Canadian orchestral music and opera during the second half of the 20th century, died in Toronto on Sunday morning. He was 82.
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Bernardi left his deepest and most lasting impressions as music director of the CBC Vancouver Orchestra — the last live radio orchestra in North America — the Calgary Philharmonic and, most importantly, as the person charged with building and honing the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.
The conductor was an excellent solo pianist and accompanist. He was as comfortable conducting an opera as a symphony orchestra. He was also a fierce advocate of Canadian artists and composers, and left a rich legacy of recordings with the now-moribund in-house record label at the CBC.
Bernardi’s signature orchestral sound was light, precise and elegant — and he worked players hard to get it.
“Mario Bernardi was a national figure who played a seminal role in the life of classical music in Canada,” said National Arts Centre head Peter Herrndorf in a press release this morning. “In 1968, when he first joined the NAC, Mario Bernardi immediately began to recruit young, exceptionally talented musicians. He shaped them into a wonderful orchestra, drawing from them a unique sound which was praised by music critics for its transparency and precision of ensemble.”
Ironically, the National Arts Centre had been working hard over the past couple of years to make sure Bernardi would be honoured with a permanent public memorial before his death. That memorial, a bronze sculpture by Ruth Abernethy to stand at the entrance of Southam Hall, will be officially unveiled on July 1.
Bernardi’s list of accomplishments and honours is huge. He was lucky to have a professional career that coincided with the building of Canada’s big-city orchestras and opera companies — and a period when public radio and television were still committed to arts programming and recording.
The future conductor spent most of his childhood near Venice, where he was only 16 when he graduated from the Venice Conservatory. He studied further at the Toronto Conservatory (now the Royal Conservatory of Music) and began his professional life in 1953 at that institution’s opera school.
During the 1950s and early ’60s, Bernardi was a frequent piano soloist and accompanist. He was a regular guest conductor with the Canadian Opera Company from 1957 to 1992 (he didn’t get along with Richard Bradshaw, who had become principal conductor in 1989).
Bernardi enjoyed a rich conducting life outside Canada, including a stint as music director at Sadler’s Wells opera in London from 1966 to 1968. He was guest conductor with the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston grand Opera and New York City Opera, the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony, among others.
But it was as a proud Canadian that he built up the National Arts Centre Orchestra and commissioned dozens of new works by Canadian composers from the first day, in 1968, to his resignation in 1982, when he went on to the CBC Vancouver Orchestra and the Calgary Philharmonic.
Bernardi returned to the National Arts Centre as conductor laureate in 1997.
His final album, recorded for the CBC, was released in 2002, featuring violinist James Ehnes and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. It’s a fine effort that showcased Bernardi’s obsession with clarity.
The conductor was married to retired mezzo Mona Kelly.
Funeral details have not yet been released.
Here’s some very appropriate Canadian music to mark the day — the Poem for Strings by Healey Willan — recorded by the CBC Vancouver Orchestra and Mario Bernardi:
UPDATE:
Andrea Hossack of the National Arts Centre says: “Those with a twitter account are using #MarioBernardi to share their memories of him. As well, the NAC suggests when they ask that they could always donate to the sculpture fund and composition fund named in his honour.”
John Terauds
- Classical Music 101: What Does A Conductor Do? - June 17, 2019
- Classical Music 101 | What Does Period Instrument Mean? - May 6, 2019
- CLASSICAL MUSIC 101 | What Does It Mean To Be In Tune? - April 23, 2019
