The long goodbye

The farewell concert is a long-established tradition among classical stars. But, asks Andrew Green, how many musicians calling it a day actually mean it?

- By Andrew Green

Dame Joan Sutherland managed things to her customary perfection: a gala goodbye before an adoring Covent Garden audience on New Year's Eve 1990, 35 years ago. Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne joined in the fun of the party scene from Die Fledermaus, and Dame Joan's husband, Richard Bonynge, directed in the pit. The celebrated soprano rounded things off with a tear-jerking rendering of 'Home! Sweet Home!' The following day, a new year, a fresh start. What a farewell! And the 64 year-old stressed her decision to retire was final: 'You can mend a violin and go on playing it, but not a voice. It doesn't work so well and there it is.' There would be no succession of Positively Last Appearances.

The danger of waiting too long to say cheerio? Maybe Dame Joan reflected on the sorry aural spectacle of Maria Callas's so-called 'Farewell Tour' in 1973/74 - recitals taking in Europe, North America and the Far East. After which, she sang in public no more, dying in 1977 aged only 53. During the tour it was plain her voice did not 'work so well'. It was 'careworn indeed' one London critic observed. Yes, a tour too far, musically speaking, but... it gave Callas's devoted admirers the opportunity to bid goodbye. At her first Royal Festival Hall concert, flowers rained in from all directions before she sang a note.

How far back in time does the idea of a farewell concert for a retiring artist take us? Hard to say, but at least as far as 1835. In April of that year, at London's Hanover Square Rooms, 64-year-old Johann Baptist Cramer played in public for the last time, in his case quitting while he was ahead. Today we associate his name with the eponymous music publishing company he founded, but back then Cramer was a famed virtuoso pianist - hugely admired, not least by Beethoven. And the Atlas newspaper was baffled 'that a man who has played all other players stark dead... should announce his intention of retiring'.