Claudio Abbado RIP

[BBMmk2]

Just received the news about the death of maestro Claudio Abbado

[verismissimo]

Claudio Abbado RIP

Just in: http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddi...o-is-dead.html

[Nick Armstrong]

Just in: http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddi...o-is-dead.html

Terrible loss, sadly not unexpected but a real end of an era for me, CA was a key to so much music right from the start of my interest, and remained I think my favourite all-round musician. Very, very saddening. Grazie, Maestro!

[Tevot]

Oh no !!! What sad news. Saw him conduct the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Beijing back in 2009. A memorable concert. Rest in peace maestro

[BBMmk2]

Terrible loss, sadly not unexpected but a real end of an era for me, CA was a key to so much music right from the start of my interest, and remained I think my favourite all-round musician. Very, very saddening. Grazie, Maestro!

Very much the same here, Cali. He was the one for me after Karajan. I was going to play some new cds I bought over the weekend from that brass band event I went to but not so sure now.....

[Barbirollians]

Passing of surely the man who was the greatest living conductor . Very sad news .

I shall be playing one of my favourite recordings of his I think - his Lucerne Mahler 2

[Dave2002]

Very sad. I never saw him conduct, and have very few recordings by him, but I have been intending to get more. Many of his recorded performances are very good.

This is one - http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/cat/4105982 Bartók - Miraculous Mandarin

[BBMmk2]

Ah yes, his recordings of this composer's music, is very hard to equal, imo.

[amateur51]

Very sad news but he had been so ill for so long, and yet he carried on working.

I remember him first from his LSO days when he seemed so young and so modern and with that wonderful bonnet of dark glossy hair, making the LSO play Bartok like gods to Pollini's solos. There's a performance of Msajhler symphny no 6 that stick s in my mind too.

I recall too encountering him and the BPO in the lounge at Eurostar Waterloo after they'd given a performance of Mahkler symphony no 3 in London. I was struck by how small he was and apparently modest and shy.

His mentoring of so many young conductors and the specialist orchestras that he created mean that there is a huge legacy for future generations to learn from and enjoy.

Thank you Maestro!

[aeolium]

Very sad news. He was a great conductor in a wide range of repertoire. Just before Christmas I was watching this DVD of earlier recordings:

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/advsearch.php?composer=Rossini&work=&performer=Abbado&medium=DVD+video&label=DG&cat=0734442

I still recall the quiet conclusion to the Schubert Mass, with those soft drumbeats.

RIP

[DracoM]

One of the unequivocally great.

[french frank]

Several of us here went to what was to be his last Prom - Mahler 3 in 2007 (according to the archive - was it that long ago?). Having a good view from the stalls, I was impressed at how much it took out of him physically and as he left the podium he gave a slight smile which seemed like relief. Memorable occasion, distinguished career.

[Beef Oven!]

Another sad loss. RIP

Was privileged to see him performing live in concert in the 1990s. In memoriam, I am currently playing his DG recording of Simon Boccanegra, Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

a great musician

not perhaps his greatest work but his recording of the Four Seasons with Gidon Kremer was a revelation of such intensity and excitement, i played that cd incessantly for months

[richardfinegold]

Last night I was playing a Blu Ray of Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Mahler 1. My son came in and was asking who the conductor was. I gave him a brief bio including his bout with Gastric Cancer. I told him that I had seen Abbado
conduct the Berlin PO on tour in Chicago in 2001 soon after his treatment and that he looked so frail and gaunt that I was afraid he wouldn't be able to finish the concert. My son gestured to Abbado on the TV monitor "Well, he looks ok here" . Now this sad news.
I saw him conduct the CSO a couple of times in the 1980s, when he and Barenboim were Principal Guest Conductors.
When Solti stepped down the competition was between DB and Abbado to replace him. Abbado got Berlin as the "consolation prize". I once lunched with the (now retired) Manager of the Orchestra, who had a fund of hilarious Abbado stories. R.I.P.