Claudio Abbado

Claudio Abbado (26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014), was an Italian conductor. He conducted many of the world’s greatest orchestras.

Claudio Abbado
Born	26 June 1933
Died	20 January 2014
Nationality	Italian
Occupation	Music conductor

Early life

Abbado was born in Milan, Italy. His father played the violin and composed. He started to learn the piano from his father. He studied music at the Milan Conservatory and often had the opportunity to listen to famous conductors rehearsing, e.g. Arturo Toscanini, Bruno Walter and Wilhelm Furtwängler. He did not like the way that Toscanini shouted and yelled at the orchestra. He knew that he did not want to be like him.

Education

He studied conducting at the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1958, he won the international Koussevitsky competition for conductors. Soon he was invited to conduct in many parts of Italy. In 1963 he won the Dmitri Mitropoulos Competition for conductors. This allowed him to work for five months with the New York Philharmonic.

Career

Abbado in Berlin, May 2008

He first conducted at La Scala in Milan in 1960. He was music director there from 1968 to 1986. He conducted the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time in 1965 in a concert at the Salzburg Festival. He was music director for the Vienna State Opera from 1986 to 1991, where he conducted traditional operas as well as new, 20th-century operas.

He was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1987. In the US, he was principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1982 to 1986. With both orchestras, Abbado made a number of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon.

In 1989, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra chose Abbado to be their conductor, to succeed Herbert von Karajan. Abbado stayed with them until 2002 when he left because of his bad health, although he returned in 2004 to make several recordings with them.

Abbado has conducted a lot of Romantic music, especially the symphonies of Gustav Mahler. He has conducted many modern works such as Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Giacomo Manzoni, Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna, Thomas Adler, Giovanni Sollima, Roberto Carnevale, Franco Donatoni and George Benjamin.

Later career

In 1988, he started the music festival Wien Modern (Vienna Modern). This festival is now not just for modern music but other forms of modern art as well.

Abbado is also well known for his work with young musicians. He started the European Union Youth Orchestra in 1978 and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra) in 1986.

The grave in 2024. In the background is the Fex Valley.

He often conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and has recently worked with the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar of Venezuela. Abbado was found to have stomach cancer in 2000 and he had a major operation. After he got better he started the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 2003. He is also music director of the Mozart Orchestra of Bologna, Italy.

In 2024, Abbado died from the cancer. His dead body was burnt. One part of his ashes was buried in Sils im Engadin/Segl, a village in Switzerland. Abbado owned a vacation home there. The grave is next to the chapel Fex-Crasta, which is from the 15th century. The cemetery overlooks the Fex Valley.

Personal life

Abbado's son Daniele is an opera-director. From his relationship with the violinist Viktoria Mullova, he is the father of her oldest child, Misha. His nephew Roberto Abbado is also a conductor.

Death

Abbado died in Bologna on the morning of 20 January 2014 at the age of 80.

Other websites

• Claudio Abbado Archived 2013-02-15 at the Wayback Machine at Deutsche Grammophon
• Claudio Abbado Archived 2007-01-04 at the Wayback Machine at Sony BMG Masterworks
• Claudio Abbado discography Archived 2006-05-02 at the Wayback Machine
• Claudio Abbado on IMDb