Opera Scotland

Claudio Abbado Suggest updates

Born Milan, 26 June 1933.

Died Bologna, 20 January 2014.

Italian conductor.

Claudio Abbado was undoubtedly one of the most influential Italian musicians of the second half of the twentieth century.

As musical director at the London Symphony Orchestra, La Scala Milan, and also of the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, his contribution to performances of Italian opera, especially Rossini and Verdi, and of the central German repertoire, can hardly be underestimated.

In later years he was particularly associated with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

Edinburgh Festival audiences were lucky to hear him regularly throughout his career in a range of memorable Usher Hall concerts including Mahler's Third Symphony, the Verdi Requiem, and the Saint Matthew Passion.

Abbado's opera performances also cover every phase of his career (though he did not actually conduct in person when his Scala company came in 1982).