Fortissimo Spring 2018

Donald Mitchell (1925-2017)
Faber Music is sad to announce the death of Dr Donald
Mitchell CBE, our inspirational founder. Mitchell was an
extraordinary person whose expertise stretched far and
wide, and established him as a world expert in the music of
Gustav Mahler and, of course, Benjamin Britten.
The founding of Faber Music in 1965 was one of Mitchell’s most
profound achievements, and the company would not be as it is today
without his vision and energy. He was the first Managing Director,
then Chairman from 1977 to 1988, after which he assumed the role
of President until 1995. Oliver Knussen once said to Mitchell ‘you
may not be a composer, but you think like one’, and it was the sheer
depth of his musical understanding that set him apart from others
in his field. Mitchell was also heavily involved in the work of PRS,
becoming chairman in 1990.
Dear colleagues,
We have dedicated this issue to the memory of Dr Donald Mitchell –
the founder of Faber Music – in gratitude and admiration.
I well remember arriving at Queen Square, after nearly 10 years at
Boosey & Hawkes, and meeting him for the first time. He had trod a
similar path, as have several others since. It was immediately obvious
to me that Faber Music was a very different organisation. Led from
the top, by Donald himself and the indefatigable Martin Kingsbury,
there was a palpable can-do spirit. Enthusiasm, commitment
and engagement were the hallmarks of Donald’s style which was
communicated to all who came into contact with him. One also
enjoyed his wry and often wicked sense of humour, his intelligence,
warmth and loyalty. With the extraordinary support of the Faber
family, this was a publisher for whom the bottom line was less
important than the nature of what we were doing.
Donald was cultured in the broadest sense, a sense which gave his
musical choices space to breathe. I never felt or heard anything from
any of our composers other than respect and affection for him. Those
contracted then were Peter Sculthorpe, Malcolm Arnold, George
Benjamin, Colin and David Matthews, Jonathan Harvey, Nicholas
Maw and Oliver Knussen… What a range of talent! A range surely
encouraged by Benjamin Britten, the company’s co-founder, and the
creator above all who fanned the fire that burned within Donald.
More about Donald and his extraordinary achievements on the next
pages. I know his spirit is still with us, and I believe his legacy is still
an inspiration.
Central to Mitchell’s life was an unqualified admiration for Britten’s
music. He began writing about the composer in the late 1940s,
and never stopped: the immense task of editing the six volumes of
Letters from a Life preoccupied him for well over 30 years, although
by 2012, when the final volume appeared, he had not been directly
involved for some time. Mitchell was the last surviving executor of
Britten’s will, becoming director of the Britten-Pears Foundation
and chair of the Britten Estate: his tireless advocacy of Britten’s
music meant that there was never any posthumous decline in the
composer’s reputation. This devotion to Britten was matched by a
fascination with the life and music of Mahler, on whom we wrote
copiously. Edward Said, in the introduction to Mitchell’s influential
study The Language of Modern Music, praised his writing’s ‘passionate
unflagging energies, its unshakeable faith in communication and
community, its deep love of and concern for music as an aesthetic
and social practice’.
‘As Faber Music’s founder, Mitchell contributed immeasurably
to the world of classical contemporary and serious educational
music publishing. He was an unfailing champion and supporter
of the generations which followed him at the company, including
myself. Faber Music’s unique DNA – quality, integrity and a
fiercely independent, maverick spirit – is epitomised thWrough the
extraordinary list of composers and the single-minded spirit with
which he built the business. It is on his shoulders that we now stand,
and we owe him a great deal.’
Richard King, CEO of Faber Music
Sally Cavender
Performance Music Director|Vice Chairman, Faber Music
2 PHOTOS: SALLY CAVENDER © MAURICE FOXALL; DONALD MITCHELL WITH IMOGEN HOLST, COLIN MATTHEWS, PETER PEARS AND WILLIAM SERVAES AT A REHEARSAL FOR
THE FIRST PERFORMANCE OF BRITTEN’S THIRD STRING QUARTET (TWO WEEKS AFTER BRITTEN’S DEATH). © NIGEL LUCKHURST, BRITTEN–PEARS FOUNDATION