Claudio Abbado. Biography

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Biography
• Claudio Abbado (June 26, 1933 —
January 20, 2014) was an Italian
opera and symphony conductor and
musician Abbado was born in Milan,
the son of violinist and composer
Michelangelo Abbado. At the age of
16, Abbado studied piano and
conducting at the Milan
Conservatory; in 1955, Abbado
studied conducting at the Vienna
Academy of Music, under Hans
Swarovski. Claudio spent some time
at the Chigi Music Academy

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The creative path
• In 1958 Abbado won the
Koussevitzky Prize for outstanding
student conductor Festival and made
his operatic debut with Prokofiev’s
The Love for Three Oranges in the
same year
• In 1960, Claudio performed for the
first time on the stage of La Scala
• He made his British debut in 1965,
leading the Hallé Orchestra in
Manchester, and in 1966 he began
his long association with the London
Symphony Orchestra;

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• He was known for his Germanic
orchestral repertory and, later, his
special interest in the music of
Gioachino Rossini and Giuseppe
Verdi. Abbado led La Scala, the
Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics,
and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra
to new heights. He helped make
the opera house more accessible
to the working-class and students.
The most famous and muchadmired recordings are the
Beethoven symphony cycle with
the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra,
performances of Mahler's
Symphony No. 2 and Debussy's La
Mer.

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• In 1971-1986, he was the chief
conductor and director of the La
Scala Theater, then he was the
chief conductor of the Vienna State
Opera.