"Abbado" redirects here. For others with the surname, see Abbado (surname).
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The Abbado family for several generations enjoyed both wealth and respect in their community. Abbado's great-grandfather tarnished the family's reputation by gambling away the family fortune. His son, Abbado's grandfather, became a professor at the University of Turin.[2] He re-established the family's reputation and also showed talent as an amateur musician.[3]
Born in Milan, Italy on 26 June 1933,[4] Claudio Abbado was the son of violinist Michelangelo Abbado,[3] and the brother of the musician Marcello Abbado (born 1926). His father, a professional violinist and a professor at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory, was his first piano teacher. His mother, Maria Carmela Savagnone, also was an adept pianist. Marcello Abbado later became a concert pianist, composer, and teacher at the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro. His sister also exhibited talent in music but did not pursue a musical career after her marriage. His other brother later became a successful architect.[2][5]
Abbado's childhood encompassed the Nazi occupation of Milan. During that time, Abbado's mother spent time in prison for harbouring a Jewish child.[6] This period solidified his anti-fascist political sentiments. Claudio himself is known 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 and sent them on the hunt for the culprit. His passionate opposition to fascism continued into his adult years.[4]
During his youth his musical interest developed, attending performances at La Scala[3] as well as orchestral rehearsals in Milan led by such conductors as Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwängler. He later recalled how 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.[3] At age 15, Abbado first met Leonard Bernstein when Bernstein was conducting a performance featuring Abbado's father as a soloist.[8] Bernstein commented, "You have the eye to be a conductor."[9]
Abbado taught chamber music for 3 years during the early 1960s in Parma.[13][14]
Conducting career
In 1969, Abbado became the principal conductor at La Scala. Subsequently, he became the company's music director in 1972. He took the title of joint artistic director, along with Giorgio Strehler and Carlo Maria Badini, in 1976.[3] During his tenure, he extended the opera season to four months, and focused on giving inexpensive performances for the working class and students. In addition to the standard opera repertoire, he presented contemporary operas, including works of Luigi Dallapiccola and of Luigi Nono, in particular, the world premiere of Nono's Al gran sole carico d'amore. In 1976, he brought the La Scala company to the US for its American debut in Washington, D.C. for the American Bicentennial.[15] In 1982, he founded the Filarmonica della Scala for the performance of orchestral repertoire by the house orchestra in concert. Abbado remained affiliated with La Scala until 1986.[16][17]
On 7 October 1968, Abbado made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera with Don Carlo. He began to work more extensively with the Vienna Philharmonic (VPO) after 1971,[18] which included two engagements as conductor of the orchestra's New Year's Day concert, in 1988 and 1991. He was a recipient of both the Philharmonic Ring and the Golden Nicolai Medal from the Vienna Philharmonic.[19]
He served as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO)[20] from 1975 to 1979 and became its Principal Conductor in 1979,[16][9] a post he held until 1987. (He was also the LSO's Music Director from 1984 until the end of his principal conductor tenure.)[21] From 1982 to 1985, he was principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO). In 1986, Abbado became the Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the city of Vienna, and in parallel, was music director of the Vienna State Opera from 1986 to 1991.[16][8] During his tenure as GMD in Vienna, in 1988, he founded the music festival Wien Modern. There he backed numerous contemporary composers including György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez, and Luigi Nono.[4]
Berlin Philharmonic
Claudio Abbado at a rehearsal of the Berlin Philharmonic (1994).
Abbado first conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in December 1966. In the late 1980s it was suspected that he might become music director of the New York Philharmonic.[4] However, after appearances as a guest conductor, in 1989, the Berlin Philharmonic elected him as its chief conductor and artistic director, in succession to Herbert von Karajan.[16][22] During his Berlin tenure, Abbado oversaw an increased presence of contemporary music in the orchestra's programming, in contrast to Karajan who had focused on late Romantic works.[23] In 1992, he co-founded 'Berlin Encounters', a chamber music festival.[16][9] In 1994, he became artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival.[16][24] In 1998, he announced his departure from the Berlin Philharmonic after the expiration of his contract in 2002.[25] Before his departure, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2000,[26] which led to his cancellation of a number of engagements with the orchestra. Subsequent medical treatment led to the removal of a portion of his digestive system,[13] and he cancelled his conducting activities for 3 months in 2001.[27]
In 2004, Abbado returned to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic for the first time since his departure as chief conductor, for concerts of Mahler's Symphony No. 6 recorded live for commercial release.[28][29] The resulting CD won Best Orchestral Recording and Record of the Year in Gramophone magazine's 2006 awards. The Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Kompositionspreis (Claudio Abbado Composition Prize) in his honour, which has since been awarded in 2006, 2010 and 2014.[30]
Other orchestras and post-Berlin work
In addition to his work with long-established ensembles, Abbado founded a number of new orchestras with younger musicians at their core. These included the European Community Youth Orchestra (later the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO)), in 1978, and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (GMJO; Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra) in (1988).[16][31] In both instances, musicians from the respective youth orchestras founded spinoff orchestras, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, respectively. Abbado worked with both these ensembles regularly as well and was artistic advisor to the COE, though he did not hold a formal title with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In turn, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra formed the core of the newest incarnation of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which Abbado and Michael Haefliger of the Lucerne Festival established in the early 2000s, and which featured musicians from various orchestras with which Abbado had long-standing artistic relationships.[13][32] From 2004 until his death, Abbado was the musical and artistic director of the Orchestra Mozart, Bologna, Italy.[33] In addition to his work with the EUYO and the GMJO, Abbado worked with the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar of Venezuela.[34]
Death
The grave in 2024 with the Fex-valley in the background.
Abbado died from stomach cancer in Bologna on 20 January 2014 at the age of 80. One week later, in tribute to him, the orchestra "Filarmonica della Scala", conducted by Daniel Barenboim, performed the slow movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 (Marcia funebre: Adagio assai in C minor) to an empty theatre, with the performance relayed to a crowd in the square in front of the opera house and live-streamed via La Scala's website.[35]
Abbado's mortal remains were cremated and an urn with a part of his ashes was buried at the cemetery of the 15th-century chapel of Fex-Crasta in the Val Fex. It is a part of the municipality of Sils-Maria, a village in the Swiss canton of Graubünden where Abbado had a vacation home.[36][37]
His musical estate was transferred to the Berlin State Library where it is being catalogued and digitised.[38]
Personal life
From his first marriage in 1956 to singer Giovanna Cavazzoni, Abbado had two children: Daniele Abbado (born 1958), who became an opera director and Alessandra (born 1959). His first marriage was dissolved.[11][39] From his second marriage, to Gabriella Cantalupi, Abbado had a son, Sebastiano. His four-year relationship 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 of his brother, Marcello, is the conductor Roberto Abbado.
Conducting
Repertoire
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, he never managed to complete a cycle with a single orchestra: in a mix of studio and concert releases, he recorded Symphonies 1–2 and 5–7 in Chicago, Symphonies 2–4, 9 and 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 traversal of the symphonies there) had to be cancelled owing to his ill health. The symphony was finally performed and recorded in 2016 under Riccardo Chailly as a tribute to Abbado.[42] A further Tenth Adagio recorded live in Berlin in 2011 was issued as part of a Berliner Philharmoniker Mahler set in 2020.
Abbado tended to speak very little in rehearsal, sometimes using the simple request to orchestras to "Listen".[6] This was a reflection of his preference for communication as a conductor via physical gesture and the 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 people can get bored. But it works because everyone knows the performances are so great. I've never known anybody more compelling. 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 often conducted from memory,[43] as he himself noted:
"...it is indispensable to know the score perfectly and be familiar with the life, the works and the entire era of the composer. I feel more secure without a score. Communication with the orchestra is easier."[19]
Dimitri Mitropoulos Memorial International Competition, 1963 (Won the one-year position as assistant conductor to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic.)[4]
Hearing the Silence (Documentary), Berliner Philharmoniker, Lucerne Festival Orchestra.[57]
"Beethoven, Symphonies 3 & 9, Berliner Philharmoniker." Euroarts, 2 DVD set. Symphony No. 3 performed by the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecelia, Rome, February 2001. Symphony No. 9 performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker, May 2000 / August 2002, in Munich. The DVD of Symphony NO. 3 offers "Conductor Camera" sequences, in which the orchestra's view of the conductor may be selected. Symphony 9 performers include Karita Mattila, soprano; Violetta Urmana, mezzo-soprano; Thomas Moser, tenor; Eike Wilm Schulte, baritone; the Swedish Radio Choir and the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir; Chorus Master, Tönu Kaljuste.
Europa Publications, ed. (1996). "Abbado, Claudio". The International Who's Who: 1996–97 (60th ed.). London, UK: Europa Publications Limited. ISBN1-85743-021-2.
Moritz, Charles; Lohr, Evelyn; Sloan, Henry; Dugan, Kieran, eds. (1974). "Abbado, Claudio". Current Biography Yearbook 1973. New York, NY: The H. W. Wilson Company. pp. 1–3. ISBN0-8242-0543-X. LCCN40027432.
Randel, Don Michael (1996). "Claudio Abbado". The Harvard biographical dictionary of music. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN0-674-37299-9.
Ross, Alex (22 October 2001). "Beethoven Unbound". The New Yorker. Vol. 77, no. 32. pp. 83–85. ISSN0028-792X. Archived from the original on 9 October 2014. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
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