Claudio Abbado

Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI^[1] (Italian pronunciation: [ˈklaudjo abˈbaːdo]; born June 26, 1933), is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, and principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra from 1989 to 2002, when he retired from the position for health reasons.

Claudio Abbado.

Biography

Born in Milan, Italy, Abbado is the son of the violinist and composer Michelangelo Abbado, who was his first piano teacher, and the brother of musician Marcello Abbado. After studies at the Milan Conservatory, in 1955 Claudio Abbado studied conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1958 he won the international Koussevitsky Competition for conductors, which resulted in a number of operatic conducting engagements in Italy, and in 1963 he won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Prize for conductors, allowing him to work for five months with the New York Philharmonic.

Abbado recalls desiring to become a conductor for the first time as a child, when he heard a performance of Claude Debussy's Nocturnes. He had the opportunity to attend many orchestral rehearsals in Milan led by such conductors as Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwängler and has told interviewers that Toscanini's tyrannical and sometimes abusive manner towards musicians in rehearsal repelled him, and that he resolved to behave in the gentler manner of Bruno Walter. Abbado is known to exhibit a friendly, understated, and non-confrontational manner in rehearsal.

He made his début at La Scala in his hometown of Milan in 1960 and served as its music director from 1968 to 1986, conducting not only the traditional Italian repertoire but also presenting a contemporary opera each year, as well as a concert series devoted to the works of Alban Berg and Modest Mussorgsky. Abbado also founded the Filarmonica della Scala in 1982, for the performance of orchestral repertoire in concert.

Abbado conducted the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time in 1965 in a concert at the Salzburg Festival. He served as music director for the Vienna State Opera from 1986 to 1991, with notable productions such as Mussorgsky's original Boris Godunov and his seldom-heard Khovanshchina, Franz Schubert's Fierrabras, and Gioacchino Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims.

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

In 1989, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra elected him as their chief conductor, to succeed Herbert von Karajan, a post he held until 2002.^[2] In 2004 he returned to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic and performed Mahler's Symphony No. 6 in a series of recorded live concerts. The resulting CD won Best Orchestral Recording and Record of the Year in Gramophone Magazine's 2006 awards.^[3]

The Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize in 2006 in his honour.^[4]

Claudio Abbado has performed and recorded a wide range of Romantic works, in particular Gustav Mahler whose symphonies he has recorded several times. He is also noted for his interpretations of modern works by composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Giacomo Manzoni, Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna, Thomas Adler, Giovanni Sollima, Roberto Carnevale, Franco Donatoni and George Benjamin.

In 1988, he founded the music festival Wien Modern, which has since expanded to include all aspects of contemporary art. This interdisciplinary festival takes place each year under his direction.

Abbado is also well-known for his work with young musicians. He is founder and music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra (1978) and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (1986). He is also a frequent guest conductor with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with whom he recorded a cycle of Franz Schubert symphonies to considerable acclaim. More recently, he has worked with the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar of Venezuela.^[5]

He was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2000 and the treatment led to the removal of a portion of his digestive system. After recovery he formed the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 2003^[6] and their concerts have been highly acclaimed.^[7] Abbado is scheduled to remain as the orchestra's music director and chief conductor through 2010.^[8] He also serves as music director of the Mozart Orchestra of Bologna, Italy.

In September 2007 he announced that he was cancelling all of his forthcoming conducting engagements for the "near future" on the advice of his physicians^[9] but two months later he resumed conducting concerts with an engagement in Bologna.^[10] In July 2011, aged 78, he declared himself to be in good health.^[11]

Abbado's son is the opera director Daniele Abbado. From his relationship with the violinist Viktoria Mullova, he is the father of her oldest child, Misha.^[12] His nephew, Roberto Abbado, (the son of his brother Marcello, born 1926, who is a composer and pianist) is also a conductor.

Awards

Claudio Abbado has received many awards and recognitions among which the Grand cross of the Légion d'honneur, Bundesverdienstkreuz, Imperial Prize of Japan, Mahler Medal, Khytera Prize, and honorary doctorates from the universities of Ferrara, Cambridge, Aberdeen, and Havana.

In 1973, he won the Mozart Medal awarded by Mozartgemeinde Wien,^[13] and the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 1994.

He has won 1997 Grammy Award in the Best Small Ensemble Performance (with or without conductor) category for "Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 1 With Finale 1921, Op. 24 No. 1" and 2005 Grammy Award in the Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with Orchestra) category for "Beethoven: Piano Cons. Nos. 2 & 3" performed by Martha Argerich.

See also

• Berlin Philharmonic
• Vienna Philharmonic
• La Scala

References

1. ^ quirinale.it
2. ^ Alex Ross (2001-10-22). "Beethoven Unbound". The New Yorker. http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/05/abbados_beethov.html. Retrieved 2007-08-07. 
3. ^ "Best of Category (Orchestral), Gramophone Award Winner, and Record of the Year". Gramophone. June 2006. Archived from the original on 2007-02-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20070215092400/http://www.gramophone.co.uk/awardstemplate.asp?id=955&award_year=2006. Retrieved 2007-08-07. 
4. ^ Matthew Westphal (2006-11-06). "Berlin Philharmonic Names Winner of First Claudio Abbado Composition Prize". Playbill Arts. http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/5540.html. Retrieved 2007-09-01. 
5. ^ Charlotte Higgins (2006-11-24). "Land of hope and glory". The Guardian. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,1955176,00.html. Retrieved 2007-09-01. 
6. ^ Tom Service (2007-08-22). "The maestro". The Guardian. http://music.guardian.co.uk/proms2007/story/0,,2153754,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-30. 
7. ^ Andrew Clements (2007-08-24). "Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Abbado (review of Prom 51, 2007)". The Guardian. http://music.guardian.co.uk/proms2007/story/0,,2155410,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-30. 
8. ^ Ben Mattison (2005-02-01). "Claudio Abbado Extends Tenure at Lucerne Festival Orchestra". Playbill Arts. http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/1293.html. Retrieved 2007-09-01. 
9. ^ Daniel J. Wakin (2007-09-07). "Abbado, Ill, Cancels Appearances". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/07/arts/music/07abba.html. Retrieved 2007-09-07. 
10. ^ Matthew Westphal (2007-11-09). "Claudio Abbado Returns to Podium Following Illness". Playbill Arts. http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/7338.html. Retrieved 2007-11-11. 
11. ^ http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/07/abbado-cautiously-gives-himself-clean-bill-of-health.html
12. ^ Tim Ashley (2001-02-02). "And this one's by the Bee Gees". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/friday_review/story/0,3605,431917,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-30. 
13. ^ "Claudio Abbado biography". http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/abbado-claudio-biography. 

External links

• Claudio Abbado at Allmusic
• Claudio Abbado at Deutsche Grammophon
• Claudio Abbado at Sony BMG Masterworks
• Claudio Abbado discography
• Claudio Abbado at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Claudio Abbado in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Claudio Abbado collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Claudio Abbado collected news and commentary at The New York Times

Preceded by Guido Cantelli

Music Director, La Scala, Milan 1968–1986

Succeeded by Riccardo Muti

Persondata
Name	Abbado, Claudio
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1933-06-26
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death