DESCRIPTION:
Claudio Abbado è morto il 20 gennaio 2014. Ricordo l'eleganza del gesto, l'energia sprigionata nonostante la malattia e, soprattutto, il respiro con l'orchestra. Non si può non ricordare il Verdi degli anni scaligeri, il sodalizio con Strehler, il modo inedito di affrontare le partiture della maturità verdiana (dal Don Carlos allo storico Simone, passando per Ballo in Maschera e Macbeth).

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Prelude (Overture) to "Macbeth" by Giuseppe Verdi.
La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, under the leadership of Claudio Abbado.

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Claudio Abbado (1933-2014) was an outstanding Italian conductor. He has served as music director of La Scala, 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, when he retired from the position for health reasons.
Born in Milan, Abbado was the son of the violinist and composer Michelangelo Abbado, who was his first piano teacher. 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 was known to exhibit a friendly, understated, and non-confrontational manner in rehearsal.
He 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. Abbado also founded the Filarmonica della Scala in 1982, for the performance of orchestral repertoire in concert.
Abbado conducted the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time in 1965 in a concert at the Salzburg Festival. He served as music director 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.
From 1979 to 1987 he was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and from 1982 to 1986 he was principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
In 1989, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra elected him as their chief conductor, to succeed Herbert von Karajan, a post he held until 2002.

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Macbeth - Preludio - Riccardo Muti - La Scala:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77k_jcVYypc

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Les Vêpres Siciliennes - Ouverture - Claudio Abbado (2002):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHIvK1tPjxk
I Vespri Siciliani - Sinfonia - Claudio Abbado (2002):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swAxrHwKQaI
Un Ballo in Maschera - Preludio - Claudio Abbado (1986):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPJ1cMSqhKw

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