The thanksgiving ceremony for Jackie’s life was held on what would have been her forty-third birthday, 26 January 1988, three months after her death. […] Dame Janet Baker sang, the English Chamber Orchestra played, and the actresses Joanna David and Janet Suzman read. Zubin Mehta was to make the address. Walking slowly to the front of the stage, he looked at his notes, paused and began reading from them. But after a few moment, he hesitated and, as if with second thoughts, folded the paper, looked up and said unsteadily: ‘I can’t continue to read what I’ve written, because everything I want to say can be told in this story. Recently, I was conducting the Elgar concerto in New York. Towards the end of the third movement, I just couldn’t conduct any more. The cellist looked up and said, “You’re thinking of her aren’t you?” “Yes,” I replied. The thought of Jackie playing with me in London for the last time in 1973 completely overwhelmed me, At that point I knew that I could never conduct the Elgar again. There was no one like Jackie and no one could replace her. There is nothing else I can say. There is nothing else to be said.’ In fact, he has not conducted the Elgar again. Danny and the orchestra re-assembled for the final tribute to Jackie: Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major. It was the performance of a lifetime. << less