Claudio Abbado’s Armenian concert cancelled
15:59, 9 November, 2013
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian concert of legendary
Italian conductor Claudio Abbado scheduled to be held on December 7
has been cancelled. The concert by Claudio Abbado and his orchestra
`Mozart’ could become a significant event not for the Republic of
Armenia alone, but for the entire region as well.
In a conversation with `Armenpress’ the Manager of the Festival Sona
Hovhannisyan underscored: `I am very sorry to announce that Claudio
Abbado’s concert, which was scheduled to be held within the framework
of `The Yerevan Prospects’ International Festival, has been canceled.
Maestro will not visit Armenia because of deterioration of his health
conditions. We wish sound health to the prominent conductor.’
Claudio Abbado is an Italian conductor. He has served as music
director of the La Scalaopera house in Milan, principal conductor of
the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,
and principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra from 1989
to 2002. He has been a Senator for life in the Senate of Italy since
2013.
Born in Milan, Italy, Abbado is the son of the violinist and composer
Michelangelo Abbado, who was his first piano teacher, and the brother
of musician Marcello Abbado. After studying piano, composition, and
conducting at the Milan Conservatory, at age 16, in 1955 Claudio
Abbado studied conducting with Hans Swarowsky at the Vienna Academy of
Music. He also spent time at the Chigiana Academy at Siena.
In 1958 he won the international Serge Koussevitsky Competition for
conductors, at the Tanglewood Music Festival, which resulted in a
number of operatic conducting engagements in Italy, and in 1963 he won
the Dimitri Mitropoulos Prize for conductors, allowing him to work
for five months with the New York Philharmonic.
Abbado made his début at La Scala in his hometown of Milan in 1960 and
served as its music director from 1968 to 1986, conducting not only
the traditional Italian repertoire but also presenting a contemporary
opera each year, as well as a concert series devoted to the works of
Alban Berg and Modest Mussorgsky. He was instrumental in increasing
accessibility to the working-class. He also founded the Filarmonica
della Scala in 1982, for the performance of orchestral repertoire in
concert.
He conducted the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time in 1965 in a
concert at the Salzburg Festival, and became the principal conductor
in 1971.[2] He served as music director and conductor for the Vienna
State Opera from 1986 to 1991, with notable productions such as
Mussorgsky’s original Boris Godunov and his seldom-heard
Khovanshchina, Franz Schubert’s Fierrabras, and Gioacchino Rossini’s
Il viaggio a Reims.
In 1965, he made his British debut at the Halle Orchestra, followed,
in 1966, by his London Symphony Orchestra debut. He continued to
conduct on a regular basis with the London Orchestra, until 1979. From
1979 to 1988 he became the principal conductor of the London
Symphony Orchestra, and from 1982 to 1986 he was principal guest
conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. With both orchestras,
Abbado made a number of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon.
In 1989, the Berlin Philharmonic elected him as their chief conductor,
to succeed Herbert von Karajan. In 1998, he announced that he
would be leaving the Berlin Philharmonic after the expiry of his
contract in 2002.
He was diagnosed with stomach cancer in 2000 and the treatment led to
the removal of a portion of his digestive system.
In 2004 he returned to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic and performed
Mahler’s Symphony No. 6 in a series of recorded live concerts. The
resulting CD won Best Orchestral Recording and Record of the Year in
Gramophone Magazine’s 2006 awards. The Orchestra Academy of
the Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Composition
Prize in 2006 in his honour.
After recovering from cancer, he formed the Lucerne Festival Orchestra
in 2003 and their concerts have been highly acclaimed. He also
serves as music director of theOrchestra Mozart of Bologna, Italy.
In September 2007 he announced that he was cancelling all of his
forthcoming conducting engagements for the “near future” on the advice
of his physicians but two months later he resumed conducting concerts
with an engagement in Bologna. In July 2011, aged 78, he declared
himself to be in good health.
Abbado’s son is the opera director Daniele Abbado. From his
relationship with the violinist Viktoria Mullova, he is the father of
her oldest child, Misha. His nephew, Roberto Abbado (the son of his
brother Marcello, born 1926, who is a composer and pianist), is also a
conductor.
Abbado has performed and recorded a wide range of Romantic works, in
particular Gustav Mahler, whose symphonies he has recorded
several times. He is also noted for his interpretations of modern
works by composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen,
Giacomo Manzoni, Luigi Nono, Bruno Maderna, Thomas Adler, Giovanni
Sollima, Roberto Carnevale, Franco Donatoni and George
Benjamin.
Abbado recalls desiring to become a conductor for the first time as a
child, when he heard a performance of Claude Debussy’s Nocturnes.
He had the opportunity to attend many orchestral rehearsals in Milan
led by such conductors as Arturo Toscanini and Wilhelm Furtwängler
and has told interviewers that Toscanini’s tyrannical and sometimes
abusive manner towards musicians in rehearsal repelled him, and that
he resolved to behave in the gentler manner of Bruno Walter. Abbado is
known to exhibit a friendly, understated, and non-confrontational
manner in rehearsal.
In 1988, he founded the music festival Wien Modern, which has since
expanded to include all aspects of contemporary art. This
interdisciplinary festival takes place each year under his direction.
Abbado is also well known for his work with young musicians. He is
founder and music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra
(1978) and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (1986). He is also a
frequent guest conductor with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe with
whom he recorded a cycle of Franz Schubert symphonies to considerable
acclaim. More recently, he has worked with the Orquesta
Sinfónica Simón Bolívar of Venezuela.
He was known for his Germanic orchestral repertory as well as his
interest in the music of Gioacchino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi.
Claudio Abbado has received many awards and recognitions among which
the Grand cross of the Légion d’honneur, Bundesverdienstkreuz,
Imperial Prize of Japan, Mahler Medal,Khytera Prize, and honorary
doctorates from the universities of Ferrara, Cambridge, Aberdeen, and
Havana.
In 1973, he won the Mozart Medal awarded by Mozartgemeinde Wien, and
the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 1994.
He has won 1997 Grammy Award in the Best Small Ensemble Performance
(with or without conductor) category for “Hindemith:11/9/13
Kammermusik No. 1 With Finale 1921, Op. 24 No. 1” and 2005 Grammy
Award in the Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with
Orchestra) category for “Beethoven: Piano Cons. Nos. 2 & 3” performed
by Martha Argerich.
In April 2012, Abbado was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame, and
in May of the same year, he was awarded the conductor prize at
the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards.
On 30 August 2013, he was appointed to the Italian Senate as a Senator
for life by President Giorgio Napolitano because of his
“outstanding cultural achievements
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