Claudio Abbado RIP

[amateur51]

The news came of course the other day that the Orchestra Mozart was winding itself up - one can only presume they did not want to go on without him - a sad tale.

More sad news indeed! I saw them twice last year once with Haitink substituting for the ailing Abbado and the other conducted by Diego Matheuz and they were very fine.

[jayne lee wilson]

I loved the way he reinvented himself with the Orchestra Mozart - perhaps they'll be back... their Mozart Violin Concerto set with Carmignola is both startling and sparkling.

Chi vive sperando, muore cantando...

R.I.P Maestro Abbado.

[Gordon]

On R4 earlier Simon Ratlle gave an assessment of CA to Front Row and Mark Lawson. Quite a respectful and thoughtful eulogy. Don't know if this is on iPlayer or not, worth a listen if it is. Sir Simon's recommended best CA recording is of a live performance of Bruckner 5 at Lucerne. DVD only.

[Karafan]

I am gutted by his passing a truly great conductor. My one great disappointment is that he did not complete his Lucerne Festival Mahler Cycle with the 8th Symphony. I only heard of his passing on my way home on In Tune. Sean Rafferty played an excerpt from the 8th Symphony. I am listening to his Berlin recording of Bruckner 7 now. And I am happy that I heard the news on In Tune and not Breakfast as I can't image the inane babbling the 'Clemy' would put us through.

I wasn't aware of an Abbado Berlin Bruckner 7, though I knew he recorded it with the VPO and later with the Lucerne FO.... Bruckner's 7th is an excellent choice though to mark the passing of this great man, Black Swan.

[Richard Tarleton]

... their Mozart Violin Concerto set with Carmignola is both startling and sparkling.

and their Brandenbergs, saved to my satellite hard disc - as is his moving BPO Das Lied with von Otter/Kaufmann...

His 1977 Boccanegra one of the great Verdi sets, his Macbeth magnificent...and I do not feel the need to own any other Mahler 7.

[amateur51]

...and I do not feel the need to own any other Mahler 7.

Caliban will be along in a wee while for one of his little chats about Michael Gielen's 'live' recording, rest assured RT

[Bryn]

R3 has a live performance of the Schubert 'Unfinished' Symphony with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra from just a few months back available:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01p0qcr

It was paired with Bruckner 9, and the broadcast was on R3 just after Christmas. No thread on it here, so no idea how many here heard it. I caught it just before the 1 week cutoff, along with the other concert of Brahms, Schoenberg & Beethoven by CA and the LFO. The LSO and Berlin Phil have tribute pages on their sites:

http://www.lso.co.uk/claudio-abbado-1933-2014

http://www.berliner-philharmoniker.d...laudio-abbado/

Those who missed these Lucerne Abbado perfornances, broadcast in the days after Christmas, might like to PM me. It is just possible I might be able to assist.

[EdgeleyRob]

Very sad news indeed.
He seems to have been at the forefront for as long as I've been listening to music.
My collection isn't awash with recordings by the great man,but I treasure the Schubert,COE Symphony set,it's divine.
I had a tearful listen to No 5 earlier.

RIP.

[Black Swan]

Karfan,

You are correct, I was listening to VPO not Berlin.

Thanks for the heads up.

J

[Bryn]

A truly great human being, and not merely in his outstanding role as conductor. A great loss to the world.

[Nick Armstrong]

I do not feel the need to own any other Mahler 7.

Yes I felt the same for a couple of decades... until...

Caliban will be along in a wee while for one of his little chats about Michael Gielen's 'live' recording, rest assured RT

He said it..

But the Abbado reading is still right up there, and has given endless hours of pleasure, and he made more sense of the structure of the piece than anyone.

[Petrushka]

A devastating loss. Memories abound of the countless times I saw Abbado and met twice. Some highlights:

The first time I saw him was at a devastating Mahler 6 in the RFH March 21 1978.
On tour with the LSO with concerts in Berlin, October 1980, the most exciting Tchaikovsky 5 I've ever heard.
On tour with the LSO to Vienna and Venice, May 1981, Mahler 5 in Venice, Bartok Miraculous Mandarin in Vienna.
The opening of the Barbican, March 1982. I wasn't at that opening concert but I was shortly after to hear him in Mahler 1.
I seemed to be at Abbado Mahler 5 performances every week in those years, including a superb BPO one in 1995.
Who can forget that stupendous BPO Mahler 9 at the 1994 Proms when the silence at the end stretched into eternity?
I was there at the first appearance at the Proms of the BPO and VPO both under Abbado.
The Mahler 3 at the 2007 Proms - unforgettable.
The last time I saw him was at the RFH in October 2011 in Bruckner 5 with the Lucerne FO.

Perhaps the most thrilling Abbado concert I attended out of many was the Beethoven Choral with the Vienna Philharmonic in September 1987, the very night after Bernstein's Mahler 5. I had a ringside seat in 'O' stalls and it was just overwhelming.

It truly is the end if an era today. Abbado gave me many hours of the most thrilling music making it is possible to imagine and we will not see his like again.

R.I.P Claudio Abbado

[Karafan]

A devastating loss. Memories abound of the countless times I saw Abbado and met twice. Some highlights:

The first time I saw him was at a devastating Mahler 6 in the RFH March 21 1978.
On tour with the LSO with concerts in Berlin, October 1980, the most exciting Tchaikovsky 5 I've ever heard.
On tour with the LSO to Vienna and Venice, May 1981, Mahler 5 in Venice, Bartok Miraculous Mandarin in Vienna.
The opening of the Barbican, March 1982. I wasn't at that opening concert but I was shortly after to hear him in Mahler 1.
I seemed to be at Abbado Mahler 5 performances every week in those years, including a superb BPO one in 1995.
Who can forget that stupendous BPO Mahler 9 at the 1994 Proms when the silence at the end stretched into eternity?
I was there at the first appearance at the Proms of the BPO and VPO both under Abbado.
The Mahler 3 at the 2007 Proms - unforgettable.

Perhaps the most thrilling Abbado concert I attended out of many was the Beethoven Choral with the Vienna Philharmonic in September 1987, the very night after Bernstein's Mahler 5. I had a ringside seat in 'O' stalls and it was just overwhelming.

It truly is the end if an era today. Abbado gave me many hours of the most thrilling music making it is possible to imagine and we will not see his like again.

R.I.P Claudio Abbado

Beautifully put, Petrushka. The sun has set today on a colossal musician - thank goodness we have such memento mori.

[Black Swan]

A devastating loss. Memories abound of the countless times I saw Abbado and met twice. Some highlights:

The first time I saw him was at a devastating Mahler 6 in the RFH March 21 1978.
On tour with the LSO with concerts in Berlin, October 1980, the most exciting Tchaikovsky 5 I've ever heard.
On tour with the LSO to Vienna and Venice, May 1981, Mahler 5 in Venice, Bartok Miraculous Mandarin in Vienna.
The opening of the Barbican, March 1982. I wasn't at that opening concert but I was shortly after to hear him in Mahler 1.
I seemed to be at Abbado Mahler 5 performances every week in those years, including a superb BPO one in 1995.
Who can forget that stupendous BPO Mahler 9 at the 1994 Proms when the silence at the end stretched into eternity?
I was there at the first appearance at the Proms of the BPO and VPO both under Abbado.
The Mahler 3 at the 2007 Proms - unforgettable.
The last time I saw him was at the RFH in October 2011 in Bruckner 5 with the Lucerne FO.

Perhaps the most thrilling Abbado concert I attended out of many was the Beethoven Choral with the Vienna Philharmonic in September 1987, the very night after Bernstein's Mahler 5. I had a ringside seat in 'O' stalls and it was just overwhelming.

It truly is the end if an era today. Abbado gave me many hours of the most thrilling music making it is possible to imagine and we will not see his like again.

R.I.P Claudio Abbado

I also totally agree and well put Petrushka. I have finished today listening to the Blue-Ray of his performance of the Mahler 9 with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. This is truly a great performance. I have already marveled at the length of silence from the audience after the final note. He was truly for me on of the great conductors.

[richardfinegold]

Are any of these stories fit to print in an obituary slot, rfg?

two prime Abbado stories that I remember, both as related by the former General Manager of the CSO

1) Approximately 6 hours before a concert scheduled at Orchestra Hall of the Verdi Requiem , C.A. calls him and says that
"Henry, this piece would sound great at Medinah Temple "(a since torn down hall that was at least 2 miles from Orchestra Hall).
Henry agrees and says, "Claudio, lets book it for 3 years from now." Abbado says now, he wants to do that evening concert there--in approximately 6 hours.
Fogel protests that there isn't enough time to arrange the switch. Abbado says no problem, have your people standing in front of Orchestra Hall with signs telling them where to go. He is dead serious and insistent.
Fogel puls out a ticket from his desk and tells C.A. "Claudio, i am holding a ticket in front of me that says Lower Balcony, Row 15, Seat 6. I have no idea if Medinah Temple has a lower balcony, A Row 15, etc. " Abbado loses his patience and tells him to do it somehow.
Fogel knows that C.A. will be checking to see if he has made every effort to accommodate him. He therefore calls the manager of Medinah Temple and tells that person, "NO matter what, you are to insist to me that Medinah Temple is not available in 5 hours for the CSO to perform Verdi's Requiem!" after a stunned silence, the manager of Medinah tells him that Medinah is not available that night.

#2

Abbado is conducting Mahler/2 at the Proms in the early 90s. Instead of having a second conductor lead the offstage orchestra, which is the usual custom with the offstage players somewhere behind the main orchestra, Abbado, on a whim, decides the day of the concert that he will put the second orchestra in the dressing room, which is equipped with TV monitors. He then will have a cameraman next to him during the concert and at the appropriate moment C.A. will conduct the offstage players via the camera.
5 minutes before offstage players are to play, a fire marshall in RAH sees the open door and tells all involved that the open door to the dressing area is a violation of fire code and demands that it be shut. Without a conductor of stature present to challenge the marshall the door is indeed shut. When C.A. gives the downbeat for the offstage players, not a sound from them can be heard in RAH. Abbado gestures into camera frantically for louder playing. The players start blowing for all they are worth, the tuba in particular almost faints from exhaustion. Still, no sound. C.A. becomes apoplectic, gesticulating wildly into the camera, to no avail.