Abbado, Claudio
From Encyclopædia
{ah-bah'-doh} Claudio Abbado, b. Milan, June 26, 1933, a leading member of the new generation of conductors, comes from a musical family. His father,
Michelangelo, was vice-principal of the Milan Conservatory where Claudio and his elder brother, Marcello, studied. He began his career as a pianist, and he studied composition with Bruno Bettinelli and
conducting with Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. In 1971 he became permanent conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic, the orchestra of the Vienna State
opera, whose
music director he became in 1986. From 1969 to 1986 he was conductor and then
music director of La Scala
opera House in Milan. During his tenure he extended La Scala's season and presented Alban Berg's Wozzeck in the original German, a considerable innovation for Milan. He also has had long-term associations with the London
symphony Orchestra, the Chicago
symphony, and the European Community Youth Orchestra. In 1989 he was named
music director of the
Berlin Philharmonic.Ella A. MalinBibliography: "Abbado, Claudio," in Current
biography (May 1973).Discography:
Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphonies nos. 1-9 (Everest);
Alban Berg, Suite from Lulu (Deutsche Grammophon); Brahms, Johannes, Symphonies nos. 1-4 (Deutsche Grammophon); Bruckner, Anton,
symphony no. 1 (London);
Leos Janacek, Sinfonietta (London);
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Symphonies nos. 1-48 (Turnabout);
Franz Schubert, Symphonies nos. 1-8.
