From a story of courage from a Sudanese refugee, to a celebration of an entirely different kind of courage, I found reading this biography to be an emotional experience. Close to the Flame, the Life of Stuart Challender is the latest of Richard Davis’ fine biographies of Australia’s great musicians. I have previously read Wotan’s Daughter, the life of Marjorie Lawrence but Challender’s premature death from AIDS at the age of 44 was a tragedy not just for him and his family, but also for Australian music. It’s just impossible to read this thoughtful biography without a sense of what might have been: if not for his untimely death, Stuart Challender (1947-1991) would have had an international career, there would be numerous recordings of his oeuvre, and he would probably still be delighting audiences with beautiful music even now. He was, as Davison says in the Prelude, the finest Australian-born conductor of his generation.
(And I heard him early in his career because it coincided with my discovery of opera in the early 1980s, when he came to Melbourne to conduct the Australian Opera).
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/01/22/close-to-the-flame-the-life-of-stuart-challe... ( )