Claudio Abbado RIP

[slarty]

One of the great weekends of my life in 1980 involved Kleiber conducting Otello with Domingo on Saturday evening and the next afternoon at the RFH, Abbado conducted The Beethoven PC3 with Pollini followed by one of the greatest Mahler 5 performances I have ever heard.
although it was never broadcast! I still have a vivid memory of the concert! probably because I was sitting behind the stage and watched CA as closely as anyone could unless they were orchestral members.
His time in London was all too short! but memorable.

[amateur51]

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.

Many thanks for these two humdingers, rfg.

[BBMmk2]

Thanks to other members of this board, ie JLW, that I will now be ordering that Stockhausen that she enthused!

[Keraulophone]

Playing the Andante (3rd movement ) from this at the moment



One of the pillars of my collection since not long after it came out. Abbado keeps something in reserve for the final climax and then lets it catch ablaze with a sort of pure fire like no one else...

I concur completely, Caliban. The key word you used there was 'pure'.
Perhaps Claudio kept even more in reserve for the final peroration in the finale of Mahler 3 in the Chicago SO recording... (Jessye Norman: amazing... loved those feathery LP box designs, too). His Chicago Resurrection Symphony was the reason I had to replace my turntable (Thorens for ADC), but the performance was 'purer' than Solti's with the same band, and it was to be distilled to near-perfection years later in Lucerne.

Caught the Brandenburgs on Sky Arts 2 the other day, the youthful and highly virtuosic Orchestra Mozart clearly enjoying intimate communication with the musician standing before them, waving his stick so eloquently and gracefully, never dictating: an invitation to play the music together 'like this'. Abbado said that conductors should, first and foremost, regard themselves as musicians. Isn't it sad that such a statement needs expressing? IMO, any other sort of conductor must surely be on a lower mission, or work on a bus.

Requiescat in pace, anti-maestro supreme.

[Black Swan]

Mahler 4 Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Abbado, Kozena.

This Blue-Ray gets really bad reviews from the River People. Do any boarders have it? It is the only one of the series I don't have. I am not sure if the bad reviews were for early editions. Please advise. I like many others are really disappointed Abbado did not complete this excellent series with Symphony 8.

[Karafan]

http://www.mahler-chamber.de/nc/en/about-the-mco/news/newsdetails/article/wir-trauern-um-unseren-gruender-claudio-abbado/7.html

[Petrushka]

Abbado conducted The Beethoven PC3 with Pollini followed by one of the greatest Mahler 5 performances I have ever heard.

I think that this was the occasion when, much to my surprise, Pollini came and sat in the seat behind me to listen to the Mahler. As mentioned above, those were the days when Abbado seemed to be conducting Mahler 5 in London every other week and I seemed to have been at most of them. I was present also at a fine performance in Venice in 1981.

For some unaccountable reason, I never heard Abbado in Mahler 7 and I can't think why I missed out. The only other Mahler symphony from Abbado that escaped me was, of course, the 8th.

No-one has yet mentioned his series. 'Mahler, Vienna and the 20th Century' which was a huge turning point in London's concert life in 1985. I have before me the programme book and have it signed by Abbado after he gave a performance of the Mahler Resurrection. Jessye Norman signed it on the same page while Leonard Bernstein signed it on the Mahler 9 page after he conducted that work.

There were some fascinating programmes and I intend listening to CD replays of those programmes using Abbado's Mahler recordings as basis in the coming weeks.

[Alison]

Please explain more about the turning point Pet. You mean other orchestras also started themed series?

[Petrushka]

Please explain more about the turning point Pet. You mean other orchestras also started themed series?

Yes, but also because it was such a huge undertaking with a big collaborative effort involved between various organisations. Plus with so much modern music being played there was a fairly large risk element attached to it. A good deal of the music would then, and probably would even now, be considered the kiss of death at the box office. In the event, it turned out be an artistic triumph for Abbado and for London. Themed series of this kind are now commonplace but that one was the one that started it all.

[amateur51]

Yes, but also because it was such a huge undertaking with a big collaborative effort involved between various organisations. Plus with so much modern music being played there was a fairly large risk element attached to it. A good deal of the music would then, and probably would even now, be considered the kiss of death at the box office. In the event, it turned out be an artistic triumph for Abbado and for London. Themed series of this kind are now commonplace but that one was the one that started it all.

It was certainly a milestone series but wasn't Rattle's Towards The Millennium with CBSO & guests a series that started earlier?

[Petrushka]

It was certainly a milestone series but wasn't Rattle's Towards The Millennium with CBSO & guests a series that started earlier?

No. T t M started in 1990 I think and could be said to have been strongly influenced by Abbado's series.

[aeolium]

John Drummond's theme for the 1983 Edinburgh Festival, "Vienna 1900" certainly predated the 1985 London series and may well have influenced it. Drummond's festival integrated the visual arts, music, theatre, opera and architectural design in a way that was new then but now is not uncommon (as with the recent Rest Is Noise South Bank festival last year).

[amateur51]

No. T t M started in 1990 I think and could be said to have been strongly influenced by Abbado's series.

Thinking hard here, I think you're right Pet - apologies

[silvestrione]

I saw him twice: an early evening 'rehearsal' (in fact performance) of Stockhausen's Gruppen with the LSO, introduced from the platform by Jonathan Harvey, with examples played by the orchestra(s). Stunning. James Judd and Edward Downing conducting the other two orchestras. I have the later BPO DG recording and love it.

Then at a prom with the BPO in Bruckner 5. Good but clearly not as transcendent as the Lucerne, by all accounts.

I treasure my off-air recording of the Lucerne Mahler 3 at the Proms.

[Petrushka]

I treasure my off-air recording of the Lucerne Mahler 3 at the Proms.

It would be fitting if the BBC broadcast this again in tribute. One of the greatest Proms I've ever attended.