Claudio Abbado

Claudio Abbado (26 June 1933 – 20 January 2014) was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation.

He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, founder and director of Lucerne Festival Orchestra, founder and director of Mahler Chamber Orchestra, founding Artistic Director of Orchestra Mozart and music director of European Union Youth Orchestra.

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.

His grandfather re-established the family's reputation and also showed talent as an amateur musician.

Born in Milan, Italy on 26 June 1933, Claudio Abbado was the son of violinist Michelangelo Abbado, 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.

Abbado's childhood encompassed the Nazi occupation of Milan.

During that time, Abbado's mother spent time in prison for harbouring a Jewish child.

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.

During his youth his musical interest developed, attending performances at La Scala 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.

Other conductors who influenced him were Bruno Walter, Josef Krips and Herbert von Karajan.

It was upon hearing Antonio Guarnieri's conducting of Claude Debussy's Nocturnes that Abbado resolved to become a conductor himself.

At age 15, Abbado first met Leonard Bernstein when Bernstein was conducting a performance featuring Abbado's father as a soloist.

Bernstein commented, "You have the eye to be a conductor."

Abbado studied piano, composition, and conducting at the Milan Conservatory, and graduated with a degree in piano in 1955.

The following year, he studied conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy of Music, on the recommendation of Zubin Mehta.

Abbado and Mehta both joined the Academy chorus to be able to watch such conductors as Bruno Walter and Herbert von Karajan in rehearsal.

He also spent time at the Chigiana Academy in Siena.

In 1958, Abbado made his conducting debut in Trieste.

That summer, he won the international Serge Koussevitzky Competition for conductors at the Tanglewood Music Festival, which resulted in a number of operatic conducting engagements in Italy.

In 1959, he conducted his first opera, The Love for Three Oranges, in Trieste.

He made his La Scala conducting debut in 1960.

Abbado taught chamber music for 3 years during the early 1960s in Parma.

In 1963, he won the Dimitri Mitropoulos Prize for conductors, which allowed him to work for five months with the New York Philharmonic as an assistant conductor to Bernstein.

Abbado made his New York Philharmonic professional conducting debut on 7 April 1963.

A 1965 appearance at the RIAS Festival in Berlin led to an invitation from Herbert von Karajan to the Salzburg Festival the following year to work with the Vienna Philharmonic.

In 1965, Abbado made his British debut with the Hallé Orchestra, followed in 1966 by his London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) debut.

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.

During his tenure, he extended the opera season to four months, and focused on giving inexpensive performances for the working class and students.