Claudio Abbado

One of the foremost orchestral leaders of the twentieth century, Claudio Abbado produced an extensive discography spanning composers from the Classical period through the early twentieth century. From 1989 until 2002 he served as chief conductor and artistic director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

Born in Milan on June 26, 1933, into a family whose lineage reached back to Moorish Spain, Abbado received his earliest musical training from his father, the violinist and Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory professor Michelangelo Abbado, and his mother, the pianist Maria Carmela Savagnone. He and his brother Marcello, later a pianist and composer, began their studies at home. World War II and the Nazi occupation of Milan interrupted those lessons when their mother was detained for sheltering a Jewish child; the episode reinforced the young Claudio’s anti-fascist convictions, which he expressed by writing “Viva Bartók” on a wall and prompting a police search. He regularly attended performances at La Scala and, whenever possible, orchestral rehearsals conducted by Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwängler.

After graduating as a pianist from the Milan Conservatory in 1955, Abbado studied conducting with Antonio Votto. He continued his training in Vienna, where he took piano lessons from Friedrich Gulda and conducting instruction from Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy of Music. Together with classmate Zubin Mehta he joined the academy chorus to watch the rehearsal techniques of Bruno Walter and Herbert von Karajan. Additional work at the Chigiana Academy in Siena preceded his professional debut in Trieste with Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges. In the summer of 1958 he achieved wider recognition by winning the Koussevitzky Conducting Competition at Tanglewood, an award that opened doors to engagements across Europe and a La Scala appearance in 1960.

Recognition in the Americas followed in 1963 with the Dmitri Mitropoulos Prize, which brought a five-month engagement with the New York Philharmonic. Abbado made his first appearance with the Vienna Philharmonic at the 1965 Salzburg Festival. During the late 1960s he led several productions at La Scala and in 1971 was appointed the company’s music director; under his leadership the opera orchestra attained new standards and was reorganized as the independent Orchestra della Scala, which regularly programmed contemporary scores. That same year he became principal conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic and began a long association with the London Symphony Orchestra, serving as its principal conductor from 1979 and later as music director. His recording activity extended well into the LP era, including a notable 1972 account of Rossini’s La Cenerentola with the London Symphony. He also devoted considerable energy to the European Community Youth Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, nurturing a generation of younger players.

Between 1982 and 1986 Abbado held the position of principal guest conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He subsequently became music director of the Vienna State Opera and general music director of the city of Vienna. In 1988 he founded the Wien Modern festival, which has since expanded beyond music to encompass additional art forms. Succeeding von Karajan at the Berlin Philharmonic in 1989, he remained in that post until 2002 while relinquishing his Vienna State Opera duties in 1991 yet staying active in the Austrian capital. Abbado recorded extensively with every major ensemble he directed, maintaining a pace remarkable even during the twentieth century’s peak recording period. Following his death, reissues continued to appear, and by the early 2020s his catalog exceeded five hundred entries. Known for conducting from memory and for a deeply considered interpretive approach, he mastered an unusually broad repertoire reaching from Mozart to Iannis Xenakis. After undergoing treatment for cancer in 2000 he reduced his schedule but persisted in performances and recordings, frequently with youth ensembles. He died in Bologna on January 20, 2014.