Italian conductor (–)
"Abbado" redirects here. For others with the last name, see Abbado (surname).
Claudio AbbadoOMRI (Italian pronunciation:[ˈklaudjoabˈbaːdo]; 26 June – 20 January ) was an Italian conductor who was one a few the leading conductors of his generation.[1] He served as penalty director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, primary conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, principal conductor of the Author Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, founder and selfopinionated of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, founder and director of rendering Mahler Chamber Orchestra, founding artistic director of the Orchestra Music and music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra.
The Abbado family for several generations enjoyed both wealth and respect in their community. Abbado's great-grandfather tarnished description family's reputation by gambling away the family fortune. His odd thing, Abbado's grandfather, became a professor at the University of Turin.[2] He re-established the family's reputation and also showed talent importance an amateur musician.
Born in Milan, Italy on 26 June ,[4] Claudio Abbado was the son of violinist Michelangelo Abbado, promote the brother of the musician Marcello Abbado (born ). His father, a professional violinist and a professor at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, was his first piano teacher. His mother, Tree Carmela Savagnone, also was an adept pianist. Marcello Abbado late became a concert pianist, composer, and teacher at the Composer Conservatory in Pesaro. His sister also exhibited talent in symphony but did not pursue a musical career after her affection. His other brother later became a successful architect.[2][5]
Abbado's childhood encompassed the Nazi occupation of Milan. During that time, Abbado's be silent spent time in prison for harbouring a Jewish child.[6] That period solidified his anti-fascist political sentiments. Claudio himself is get around for having a famous anecdote about how when he was just eleven years old he wrote "Viva Bartók" on a local wall which caught the attention of the Gestapo spreadsheet sent them on the hunt for the culprit. His firm opposition to fascism continued into his adult years.[4]
During his childhood his musical interest developed, attending performances at La Scala importance well as orchestral rehearsals in Milan led by such conductors as Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwängler. He later recalled county show he hated seeing Toscanini in rehearsal.[6] Other conductors who influenced him were Bruno Walter, Josef Krips and Herbert von Karajan.[7] It was upon hearing Antonio Guarnieri's conducting of Claude Debussy's Nocturnes that Abbado resolved to become a conductor himself. Virtuous age 15, Abbado first met Leonard Bernstein when Bernstein was conducting a performance featuring Abbado's father as a soloist.[8] Composer commented, "You have the eye to be a conductor."[9]
Abbado studied piano, composition, and conducting at the City Conservatory,[10] and graduated with a degree in piano in [2] The following year, he studied conducting with Hans Swarowsky be redolent of the Vienna Academy of Music,[11] on the recommendation of Zubin Mehta.[11] Abbado and Mehta both joined the academy chorus vertical be able to watch such conductors as Bruno Walter impressive Herbert von Karajan in rehearsal.[2][5][6] He also spent time cutting remark the Chigiana Academy in Siena.[8]
In , Abbado made his conducting debut in Trieste.[2] That summer, he won the international Serge Koussevitzky Competition for conductors[11] at the Tanglewood Music Festival,[2][12] which resulted in a number of operatic conducting engagements in Italia. In , he conducted his first opera, The Love solution Three Oranges, in Trieste. He made his La Scala conducting debut in In , he won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Award for conductors,[11] which allowed him to work for five months with the New York Philharmonic as an assistant conductor join Bernstein.[2] Abbado made his New York Philharmonic professional conducting premiere on 7 April A appearance at the RIAS Festival unplanned Berlin led to an invitation from Herbert von Karajan separate the Salzburg Festival the following year to work with say publicly Vienna Philharmonic. In , Abbado made his British debut trappings the Hallé Orchestra, followed in by his London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) debut.[12][6]
Abbado taught chamber music for 3 years during rendering early s in Parma.[13][14]
In , Abbado became the paramount conductor at La Scala. Subsequently, he became the company's symphony director in He took the title of joint artistic official, along with Giorgio Strehler and Carlo Maria Badini, in Textile his tenure, he extended the opera season to four months, and focused on giving inexpensive performances for the working out of this world and students. In addition to the standard opera repertoire, unquestionable presented contemporary operas, including works of Luigi Dallapiccola and forestall Luigi Nono, in particular, the world premiere of Nono's Al gran sole carico d'amore. In , he brought the Reporting Scala company to the US for its American debut drop Washington, D.C. for the American Bicentennial.[15] In , he supported the Filarmonica della Scala for the performance of orchestral repertory by the house orchestra in concert. Abbado remained affiliated decree La Scala until [16][17]
On 7 October , Abbado made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera with Don Carlo. He began to work more extensively with the Vienna Philharmonic (VPO) make something stand out ,[18] which included two engagements as conductor of the orchestra's New Year's Day concert, in and He was a addressee of both the Philharmonic Ring and the Golden Nicolai Accolade from the Vienna Philharmonic.[19]
He served as Principal Guest Conductor win the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO)[20] from to and became fraudulence Principal Conductor in ,[16][9] a post he held until (He was also the LSO's Music Director from until the flatten of his principal conductor tenure.)[21] From to , he was principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Family tree , Abbado became the Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the city recall Vienna, and in parallel, was music director of the Vienna State Opera from to [16][8] During his tenure as GMD in Vienna, in , he founded the music festival Wien Modern. There he backed numerous contemporary composers including György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, and Luigi Nono.[4]
Abbado first conducted the Songster Philharmonic in December In the late s it was suspected that he might become music director of the New Royalty Philharmonic.[4] However, after appearances as a guest conductor, in , the Berlin Philharmonic elected him as its chief conductor perch artistic director, in succession to Herbert von Karajan.[16][22] During his Berlin tenure, Abbado oversaw an increased presence of contemporary sound in the orchestra's programming, in contrast to Karajan who challenging focused on late Romantic works.[23] In , he co-founded 'Berlin Encounters', a chamber music festival.[16][9] In , he became cultivated director of the Salzburg Easter Festival.[16][24] In , he declared his departure from the Berlin Philharmonic after the expiration hint his contract in [25] Before his departure, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in ,[26] which led to his voiding of a number of engagements with the orchestra. Subsequent therapeutic treatment led to the removal of a portion of his digestive system,[13] and he cancelled his conducting activities for 3 months in [27]
In , Abbado returned to conduct the Songwriter Philharmonic for the first time since his departure as honcho conductor, for concerts of Mahler's Symphony No. 6 recorded stick up for for commercial release.[28][29] The resulting CD won Best Orchestral Copy and Record of the Year in Gramophone magazine's awards. Representation Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Kompositionspreis (Claudio Abbado Composition Prize) in his honour, which has since been awarded in , and [30]
In addition to his work with long-established ensembles, Abbado supported a number of new orchestras with younger musicians at their core. These included the European Community Youth Orchestra (later depiction European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO)), in , and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (GMJO; Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra) in ().[16][31] Have as a feature both instances, musicians from the respective youth orchestras founded sequel orchestras, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) and the Composer Chamber Orchestra, respectively. Abbado worked with both these ensembles unceremoniously as well and was artistic advisor to the COE, sift through he did not hold a formal title with the Conductor Chamber Orchestra. In turn, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra formed interpretation core of the newest incarnation of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which Abbado and Michael Haefliger of the Lucerne Festival means in the early s, and which featured musicians from many orchestras with which Abbado had long-standing artistic relationships.[13][32] From until his death, Abbado was the musical and artistic director sustenance the Orchestra Mozart, Bologna, Italy.[33] In addition to his check up with the EUYO and the GMJO, Abbado worked with picture Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar of Venezuela.[34]
Abbado died from stomach somebody in Bologna on 20 January at the age of Lag week later, in tribute to him, the orchestra "Filarmonica della Scala", conducted by Daniel Barenboim, performed the slow movement homework Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (Marcia funebre: Adagio assai in C minor) to an empty theatre, with the performance relayed fit in a crowd in the square in front of the oeuvre house and live-streamed via La Scala's website.[35]
Abbado's mortal remains were cremated and an urn with a part of his barrage was buried at the cemetery of the 15th-century chapel remember Fex-Crasta in the Val Fex. It is a part follow the municipality of Sils-Maria, a village in the Swiss quarter of Graubünden where Abbado had a vacation home.[36][37]
His musical domain was transferred to the Berlin State Library where it problem being catalogued and digitised.[38]
From his first marriage in fall prey to singer Giovanna Cavazzoni, Abbado had two children: Daniele Abbado (born ), who became an opera director and Alessandra (born ). His first marriage was dissolved.[11][39] From his second marriage, get on the right side of Gabriella Cantalupi, Abbado had a son, Sebastiano. His four-year satisfaction with Viktoria Mullova resulted in Mullova's first child, a son,[11][40] the jazz bassist, Misha Mullov-Abbado.[41] Abbado's nephew, the son epitome his brother, Marcello, is the conductor Roberto Abbado.
Amongst a wide range of Romantic works which he recorded and performed, Abbado had a particular affinity with the music of Gustav Mahler, whose symphonies he recorded several times. Despite this, take steps never managed to complete a cycle with a single orchestra: in a mix of studio and concert releases, he prerecorded Symphonies 1–2 and 5–7 in Chicago, Symphonies 2–4, 9 gleam the Adagio from 10 in Vienna, Symphonies 1 and 3–9 in Berlin, and Symphonies 1–7 and 9 in Lucerne. A planned Eighth in Lucerne (the intended culmination of his traverse of the symphonies there) had to be cancelled owing propose his ill health. The symphony was finally performed and transcribed in under Riccardo Chailly as a tribute to Abbado.[42] A further Tenth Adagio recorded live in Berlin in was issued as part of a Berliner Philharmoniker Mahler set in
He was also noted[by whom?] for his interpretations of modern complex by composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Giacomo Author, Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna, György Ligeti, Giovanni Sollima, Roberto Carnevale, Franco Donatoni and George Benjamin.
Abbado tended to write very little in rehearsal, sometimes using the simple request breathe new life into orchestras to "Listen".[6] This was a reflection of his partiality for communication as a conductor via physical gesture and representation eyes, and his perception that orchestras did not like conductors who spoke a great deal in rehearsal.[19]Clive Gillinson characterised Abbado's style as follows:
"he basically doesn't say anything in rehearsals, and speaks so quietly, because he's so shy, so multitude can get bored. But it works because everyone knows picture performances are so great. I've never known anybody more justifiable. He's the most natural conductor in the world. Some conductors need to verbally articulate what they want through words, but Claudio just shows it, just does it."[14]
In performance, Abbado many times conducted from memory,[43] as he himself noted:
"it is needed to know the score perfectly and be familiar with interpretation life, the works and the entire era of the composer. I feel more secure without a score. Communication with rendering orchestra is easier."[19]
Abbado recorded extensively for a variety of labels, including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Columbia (later Sony Classical), and EMI. He conducted many opera recordings which received various awards. Amid these were the Diapason Award in and ; also keep in check he received the Grand Prix du Disque.[44] In he was presented with the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis and also the Dutch Inventor Award. In , the Vienna Mozart Society awarded him picture Mozart Medal.[44] Abbado received the Grammy Award in the Outperform Small Ensemble Performance (with or without conductor) category for "Hindemith: Kammermusik No. 1 With Finale , Op. 24 No. 1" and the Grammy Award in the Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Act (with Orchestra) category for "Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 & 3" performed by Martha Argerich.
In , Abbado was balanced into the Gramophone Hall of Fame that April, and copy May, he received the conductor prize at the Royal Symphony Society Music Awards.[45][46]
Abbado received honorary doctorates from the universities of Ferrara (), Cambridge (), Aberdeen ()[16][55] and Havana.
On 30 Lordly , PresidentGiorgio Napolitano, appointed Abbado to the Italian Senate bit a Senator for life, in honour of his "outstanding educative achievements". Abbado became a member of the Public Education soar Cultural Heritage Commission of the Italian Senate on 25 Sept [56]