Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, who has died at the age of 80, was one of the true giants of classical who was considered to be among the greatest of all conductors by many.
Abbado, who survived stomach cancer in 2000 but had been ill for some months, died peacefully at his home in Bologna, a statement from his family said.
The Italian led some of the world's finest orchestras: at La Scala in Milan, at the Berlin Philharmonie and for nine years the London Symphony Orchestra.
Among the many heartfelt, Sir Simon Rattle, who succeeded Abbado as the Berlin Philharmonic's principal conductor, said: "We have lost a great musician and a very generous man. Ten years ago we all wondered whether he would survive the illness which has now claimed him, but instead, he, and we as musicians and public, could enjoy an extraordinary Indian summer, in which all the facets of his art came together in an unforgettable way.
"He said to me a few years ago, 'Simon, my illness was terrible, but the results have not been all bad: I feel that somehow I hear from the inside of my body, as if the loss of my stomach gave me internal ears. I cannot express how wonderful that feels. And I still feel that music saved my life in that time!'"
Rattle said his performances in these later years were transcendent. "Personally, he was always immensely kind and generous to me, from my earliest days as a conductor, and we kept warm and funny contact together even up to last Friday. He remains deep in my heart and memory."
Abbado was a champion of youth orchestras. The Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel said Abbado "will always be part of the exalted group of geniuses in the history of the arts. His endless generosity and love touched me at a very early age and will be always one of the most valuable treasures in my life."
Dudamel said Abbado "embraced as his family" the Sistema programme of youth orchestras. "He gave to us his sincere love and his profound wisdom."
The conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim was a friend for more than 50 years. "We lose one of the greatest musicians of the past 50 years and one of the very few musicians who had a very strong connection with the spirit of music across the different genres," he said.
Barenboim praised Abbado's work with contemporary composers and his support of youth orchestras.
"He was a pioneer who worked with young musicians, challenged and supported them, throughout his entire career. With this, he set an example for the world, maintaining that young and inexperienced musicians can make music at the highest level when they work with the right attitude and commitment."
Abbado was a mentor to countless younger musicians, including the conductor Daniel Harding who called Abbado "one of the wonders of the world".
He added: "He created at least six orchestras, most of them for young people. Through this he did more than any single person in our time to educate an entire generation, maybe two generations, in what it means to play in an orchestra He was the greatest conductor I have ever seen or heard in person. Not always, not for all repertoire, but when he was in his element and comfortable with those around him then there was nobody to touch him."
The Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons said Abbado "was one of the greatest conductors of our time, no doubt about it". He added: "Music was everything for himI remember when we went to Japan together with the Berlin Philharmonic – it was the time that his illness had started and I was always there in case something should happen, I would take over the concerts. But the conducting, the music helped him. He was so thin and frail, but he was able to conduct. He did Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, complete: it was amazing. When he was on stage it somehow helped him. I think it was conducting that meant he could survive his illness for so long."
Abbado appeared several times at the Royal Opera House. Its musical director Sir Antonio Pappano said Abbado was "a unique spirit and a visionary". He added: "He seemed to truly have the Midas touch as everything he brought to life shined with a fierce light... he is by any standard a giant."
The Abbado years in London are fondly remembered. He succeeded Andre Previn in 1979 at a key point in the orchestra's history as it took up permanent residence at the Barbican. Michael Davis, the LSO leader for most of those years, said: "The work with Claudio was the most satisfying and important I have ever done."
The violinist and current LSO chairman, Lennox Mackenzie, said: "It's a very sad day for the LSO. He was a very important part in the LSO's history, a truly charismatic figure. His concerts were breathtaking - I remember players actually in tears as they were playing. Those of us in the orchestra in 1980s will remember him with great affection and admiration." Abbado was a Proms regular for more than 40 years, last conducting Mahler's 3rd in 2007.
Roger Wright, the BBC Proms director and Radio 3 controller, said his death "leaves a huge hole in the world of classical music." He added: "He was one of the most important conductors of his generation and leaves an enormous legacy of operatic and orchestral events."
Abbado's final concert of the two unfinished symphonies by Schubert and Bruckner was broadcast on Radio 3 on Boxing Day.
Wright said: "These performances are a testament to his extraordinary musicianship and the unique qualities of his work with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra."
Abbado was the recipient of numerous awards including one of the UK's highest classical music honours, the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal in 2003.
Rosemary Johnson, executive director of RPS, has particular memories of Abbado because she sang for the London Symphony Chorus in the 1980s. "That was just the best music making I've ever been involved in," she said.
"He was very attached to the choir and would take us on tour to Europe and quite often it was big pieces, like Mahler, where the choir would come in after an hour and you'd be sitting in the back of the hall, miles and miles away from him. And every time he picked up the baton and looked at the choir you felt he was personally making contact with you and you were out there to make music with him. It was an incredibly intimate and fantastic experience."
Abbado's music label for 46 years was Deutsche Grammophon. Its president Mark Wilkinson said: "The world has lost one of the most inspiring musicians of our era, a man who put himself entirely at the service of the music he conducted and, in doing so, made listeners feel that they were hearing it properly for the very first time."
His death was particularly felt in Italy where he was revered. The Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, called him "a reference point for the entire country and beyond."
He added: "The musical and cultural world has lost an absolute champion. But we – above all those young people to whom Claudio Abbado gave so much – are left with his testimony and example."
Abbado fell ill once more last year, around the time that the Italian president Giorgio Napolitano made him a senator for life.
Napolitano said that Abbado had confronted his health problems with "extraordinary willpower" right up until the end. "The passing of Claudio Abbado is the cause of strong emotion and pain for me personally and of deep grief for Italy and culture," he said. "I would like to pay tribute, not only as an old friend and admirer, but as a representative of the nation and institutions of the republic, to the man who honoured our country's great musical tradition in Europe and throughout the world."
Despite his ill health, Abbado's musical passion was in evidence until the very end, friends said. "Up until Thursday he was studying [a] Schumann symphony," Massimo Biscardi of the Orchestra Mozart in Bologna told RaiNews24. "At 80 years old he was studying like he was 18."
Mark Brown, Imogen Tilden and Lizzy Davies
The Guardian, Monday 20 January 2014 19.22 GMT
Abbado, who survived stomach cancer in 2000 but had been ill for some months, died peacefully at his home in Bologna, a statement from his family said.
The Italian led some of the world's finest orchestras: at La Scala in Milan, at the Berlin Philharmonie and for nine years the London Symphony Orchestra.
Among the many heartfelt, Sir Simon Rattle, who succeeded Abbado as the Berlin Philharmonic's principal conductor, said: "We have lost a great musician and a very generous man. Ten years ago we all wondered whether he would survive the illness which has now claimed him, but instead, he, and we as musicians and public, could enjoy an extraordinary Indian summer, in which all the facets of his art came together in an unforgettable way.
"He said to me a few years ago, 'Simon, my illness was terrible, but the results have not been all bad: I feel that somehow I hear from the inside of my body, as if the loss of my stomach gave me internal ears. I cannot express how wonderful that feels. And I still feel that music saved my life in that time!'"
Rattle said his performances in these later years were transcendent. "Personally, he was always immensely kind and generous to me, from my earliest days as a conductor, and we kept warm and funny contact together even up to last Friday. He remains deep in my heart and memory."
Abbado was a champion of youth orchestras. The Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel said Abbado "will always be part of the exalted group of geniuses in the history of the arts. His endless generosity and love touched me at a very early age and will be always one of the most valuable treasures in my life."
Dudamel said Abbado "embraced as his family" the Sistema programme of youth orchestras. "He gave to us his sincere love and his profound wisdom."
The conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim was a friend for more than 50 years. "We lose one of the greatest musicians of the past 50 years and one of the very few musicians who had a very strong connection with the spirit of music across the different genres," he said.
Barenboim praised Abbado's work with contemporary composers and his support of youth orchestras.
"He was a pioneer who worked with young musicians, challenged and supported them, throughout his entire career. With this, he set an example for the world, maintaining that young and inexperienced musicians can make music at the highest level when they work with the right attitude and commitment."
Abbado was a mentor to countless younger musicians, including the conductor Daniel Harding who called Abbado "one of the wonders of the world".
He added: "He created at least six orchestras, most of them for young people. Through this he did more than any single person in our time to educate an entire generation, maybe two generations, in what it means to play in an orchestra He was the greatest conductor I have ever seen or heard in person. Not always, not for all repertoire, but when he was in his element and comfortable with those around him then there was nobody to touch him."
The Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons said Abbado "was one of the greatest conductors of our time, no doubt about it". He added: "Music was everything for himI remember when we went to Japan together with the Berlin Philharmonic – it was the time that his illness had started and I was always there in case something should happen, I would take over the concerts. But the conducting, the music helped him. He was so thin and frail, but he was able to conduct. He did Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, complete: it was amazing. When he was on stage it somehow helped him. I think it was conducting that meant he could survive his illness for so long."
Abbado appeared several times at the Royal Opera House. Its musical director Sir Antonio Pappano said Abbado was "a unique spirit and a visionary". He added: "He seemed to truly have the Midas touch as everything he brought to life shined with a fierce light... he is by any standard a giant."
The Abbado years in London are fondly remembered. He succeeded Andre Previn in 1979 at a key point in the orchestra's history as it took up permanent residence at the Barbican. Michael Davis, the LSO leader for most of those years, said: "The work with Claudio was the most satisfying and important I have ever done."
The violinist and current LSO chairman, Lennox Mackenzie, said: "It's a very sad day for the LSO. He was a very important part in the LSO's history, a truly charismatic figure. His concerts were breathtaking - I remember players actually in tears as they were playing. Those of us in the orchestra in 1980s will remember him with great affection and admiration." Abbado was a Proms regular for more than 40 years, last conducting Mahler's 3rd in 2007.
Roger Wright, the BBC Proms director and Radio 3 controller, said his death "leaves a huge hole in the world of classical music." He added: "He was one of the most important conductors of his generation and leaves an enormous legacy of operatic and orchestral events."
Abbado's final concert of the two unfinished symphonies by Schubert and Bruckner was broadcast on Radio 3 on Boxing Day.
Wright said: "These performances are a testament to his extraordinary musicianship and the unique qualities of his work with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra."
Abbado was the recipient of numerous awards including one of the UK's highest classical music honours, the Royal Philharmonic Society's Gold Medal in 2003.
Rosemary Johnson, executive director of RPS, has particular memories of Abbado because she sang for the London Symphony Chorus in the 1980s. "That was just the best music making I've ever been involved in," she said.
"He was very attached to the choir and would take us on tour to Europe and quite often it was big pieces, like Mahler, where the choir would come in after an hour and you'd be sitting in the back of the hall, miles and miles away from him. And every time he picked up the baton and looked at the choir you felt he was personally making contact with you and you were out there to make music with him. It was an incredibly intimate and fantastic experience."
Abbado's music label for 46 years was Deutsche Grammophon. Its president Mark Wilkinson said: "The world has lost one of the most inspiring musicians of our era, a man who put himself entirely at the service of the music he conducted and, in doing so, made listeners feel that they were hearing it properly for the very first time."
His death was particularly felt in Italy where he was revered. The Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, called him "a reference point for the entire country and beyond."
He added: "The musical and cultural world has lost an absolute champion. But we – above all those young people to whom Claudio Abbado gave so much – are left with his testimony and example."
Abbado fell ill once more last year, around the time that the Italian president Giorgio Napolitano made him a senator for life.
Napolitano said that Abbado had confronted his health problems with "extraordinary willpower" right up until the end. "The passing of Claudio Abbado is the cause of strong emotion and pain for me personally and of deep grief for Italy and culture," he said. "I would like to pay tribute, not only as an old friend and admirer, but as a representative of the nation and institutions of the republic, to the man who honoured our country's great musical tradition in Europe and throughout the world."
Despite his ill health, Abbado's musical passion was in evidence until the very end, friends said. "Up until Thursday he was studying [a] Schumann symphony," Massimo Biscardi of the Orchestra Mozart in Bologna told RaiNews24. "At 80 years old he was studying like he was 18."
Mark Brown, Imogen Tilden and Lizzy Davies
The Guardian, Monday 20 January 2014 19.22 GMT
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