Biographical Timeline
"“Claudio Abbado is one of those rare conductors who seem to get more youthful and enquiring with age, while at the same time his music-making takes on an ever greater profundity.”"Daily Telegraph, London |
Claudio Abbado made his debut in 1960, at the Teatro alla Scala in his home city of Milan, and was music director there from 1968–1986. He also served as music director of the London Symphony Orchestra from 1983–1986. Having conducted the Wiener Philharmoniker for the first time in 1965, he became music director of the Vienna State Opera from 1986–1991, and in 1987 Generalmusikdirektor of the City of Vienna. In 1988 he initiated the “Wien Modern” Festival. Abbado has always taken great interest in young musicians: as founder and music director of the Youth Orchestra of the European Union and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, artistic director of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and founder and principal conductor of the new Lucerne Festival Orchestra. He has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon since 1967, amassing a discography that includes the entire symphonic works of Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Schubert and Ravel and more than 20 complete opera recordings.
Abbado’s numerous honours and awards include the Gran Croce, the highest honour bestowed by the Italian Republic, the Cross of the Legion of Honour from the French Minister of Culture and the Grosses Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens (the highest honour awarded by the Federal Republic of Germany). In 1973, the Wiener Philharmoniker awarded him the Ring of Honour, and in 1980 the Golden Nicolai Medal. In Vienna in 1985, he received the Gold Medal of the International Gustav Mahler Society for his services to the composer’s music; in Düsseldorf in 2004, the Kythera Award for his “innumerable services to musical culture”. He was named an honorary citizen of Lucerne in 2005. Abbado holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Aberdeen, Ferrara and Cambridge, and is an honorary member of Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and Konzerthausgesellschaft.
1989 | Elected permanent conductor and artistic director of the Berliner Philharmoniker until 2002 |
1990 | Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Vienna State Opera. Release of Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina |
1991 | Release of his first Mahler recording with the Berliner Philharmoniker (Symphony no. 1) |
1992 | Janáček’s From the House of the Dead with the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Salzburg Festival and European tour with them. Releases: complete Brahms cycle with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande |
1993 | Tour to Israel and the USA with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Concert performances of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov in Berlin. Release of new Deutsche Grammophon recording from Vienna of the Verdi Requiem |
1994 | Artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival. Conducts Mozart’s Figaro with the Wiener Philharmoniker; Boris Godunov at the Salzburg Festival. Tour to Japan with the Berliner Philharmoniker. Receives Ernst von Siemens Prize, Germany’s most prestigious music award. Release of Lohengrin and Mahler’s Second Symphony |
1995 | Elektra at the Salzburg Easter Festival. Releases: Figaro and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with the Wiener Philharmoniker, and Mahler’s Eighth with the Berliner Philharmoniker |
1996 | Otello at the Salzburg Easter Festival; Elektra at the Florence Maggio Musicale |
1997 | Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Berlin and at the Salzburg Easter Festival; Brahms in Vienna with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Wozzeck at the Salzburg Festival with the Wiener Philharmoniker; Schubert’s Fierrabras in Berlin |
1998 | Boris Godunov at the Salzburg Easter Festival; concerts in New York and Japan with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in Berlin. Release of Mozart’s Don Giovanni |
1999 | Wagner’s Tristan and Bach’s B minor Mass at the Salzburg Easter Festival; tours with the Berliner Philharmoniker to Moscow, London, Paris and the USA |
2000 | Simon Boccanegra at the Salzburg Easter Festival; concerts with the Berliner Philhar¬moniker in South America and Japan |
2001 | Verdi’s Falstaff at the Salzburg Easter Festival; the work is recorded in Berlin (Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, 2001; Echo Award 2002). Wagner’s Parsifal in Berlin |
2002 | Farewell performances as artistic director of the Salzburg Easter Festival (Parsifal with the Berliner Philharmoniker). Triumphant performances of Simon Boccanegra at the Maggio Musicale. Releases include The Berlin Album, and Mahler’s Symphonies no. 3 (Diapason d’or 2002), no. 7 (Choc du Monde de la Musique 2002) and no. 9 (Choc du Monde de la Musique 2002; CD Compact 2003) with the Berliner Philharmoniker |
2003 | Concerts in Italy with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and at the Lucerne Festival with the Festival Orchestra. Releases: orchestral music by Debussy and Wagner, both with the Berliner Philharmoniker, and Schubert lieder in orchestral arrangements with Anne Sofie von Otter, Thomas Quasthoff and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Grammy Award 2004) |
2004 | Mahler and Martin in Berlin with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Mahler in Rome with the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra; Mozart’s Così fan tutte with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Italy; Beethoven and Hindemith at the Lucerne Festival. Releases: Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 (Choc du Monde de la Musique and Diapason d’or, 2004; Prix Caecilia 2005); Debussy’s La Mer with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra; Beethoven Piano Concertos with Martha Argerich (Grammy Award 2006), and Sempre libera (Echo Award 2005), opera arias with Anna Netrebko, both with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra |
2005 | Mahler and Berg with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Die Zauberflöte in Baden-Baden and Italy with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; concerts with the Orchestra Mozart in Italy; and with the Festival Orchestra in Lucerne and Rome. Releases: Mahler’s Symphonies nos. 4 and 6 (Gramophone and Echo Award, 2006 for no. 6) with the Berliner Philharmoniker |
2006 | Conducts the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Caracas and Italy; the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and cellist Natalia Gutmann in Italy; the Berliner Philharmoniker and Anne Sofie von Otter at the Philharmonie; and the Orchestra Mozart and Carmignola in Italy and Salzburg. At the Lucerne Festival he leads the Festival Orchestra in Mozart (arias with Cecilia Bartoli), Mahler, Martin (Jedermann Monologue with Thomas Quasthoff), Brahms (Piano Concerto no. 2 with Pollini) and Bruckner, and appears with them in Tokyo. Performances in Edinburgh of Die Zauberflöte with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; their recording of Die Zauberflöte is crowned with a Gramophone Award 2006. Also released: The Mozart Album, new recordings of popular arias and duets featuring Deutsche Grammophon’s star singers |
2007 | Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos with Carmignola and the Orchestra Mozart throughout Italy; concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker in the Philharmonie; and with the Festival Orchestra in Lucerne and at the BBC Proms. Releases: Natalia Gutman performing Schumann’s Cello Concerto and Brahms’s Serenade no. 1 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; a highlights album of Die Zauberflöte; and the re-release on DVD of Peter and the Wolf and the 1991 New Year’s Concert with the Wiener Philharmoniker |
2008 | Conducts Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Italy, Madrid and Baden-Baden; Berlioz’s Te Deum and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 4 (Maurizio Pollini) with the Berliner Philharmoniker in the Philharmonie; Pergolesi and Mozart with the Orchestra Mozart in Bologna; Ravel, Debussy, Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and Rachmaninov with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra at the Lucerne Festival and in Vienna’s Musikverein. DG celebrates Abbado’s 75th birthday with numerous releases: Beethoven’s Nine Symphonies (based on Rome recordings February 2001); Mozart’s Violin Concertos (Carmignola) and the Sinfonia concertante (Carmignola and Danusha Waśkiewicz) and Symphonies nos. 29, 33, 35, 38 and 41 with the Orchestra Mozart; a compilation of Marches and Dances; Beethoven’s Piano Concertos with Pollini and the Berliner Philharmoniker coupled with the Triple Concerto with Ilya Gringolts, Mario Brunello, Alexander Lonquich and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela; on DVD: Abbado in Concert |
2009 | Concerts include Mahler’s Symphony no. 4 and Brahms’s Piano Concerto no. 1 (Grimaud) with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in Caracas; Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 3 (Yuja Wang), Lieutenant Kijé, Mozart symphonies and wind concertos, Schubert’s Fourth Symphony and Pergolesi with the Orchestra Mozart in Italy; Beethoven’s Fifth, Richard Strauss’s Four Last SongsRequiem with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in Italy; Schubert, Mahler and Debussy in Berlin. He conducts the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphonies nos. 1 and 4, and with Yuja Wang performing Prokoviev’s Third Piano Concerto and Magdalena Koženà singing Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder at the Lucerne Festival; in September he leads the Festival Orchestra in Beijing – on the programme: Yuja Wang playing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 3 and Mahler’s First Symphony. Audio releases include Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Salve Regina and Violin Concerto with Giuliano Carmignola amd the Orchestra Mozart in celebration of Pergolesi Year 2010 and the re-release of Haydn’s 7 “London” Symphonies with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe to celebrate the composer’s 200th anniversary: on DVD: A Russian Night from the 2008 Lucerne Festival with pianist Hélène Grimaud playing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 2, Stravinsky’s Firebird, and Tchaikovsky’s The Tempest with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra |
3/2009
