Claudo Abbado's 75th!

[knight66]

I am quoting myself here from another thread on conductors.

"Abbado wanted a well schooled sound, but not smooth. His French music sounded different in blend from his German music. He is good at building climaxes and sustaining sound, and demands a very graded diminuendo. Abbado: calm, communicated with a very expressive face and hand gestures. Did not talk about the music, stuck to the technical terms for what he wanted then expanded these. Like so many, an acute ear for blend. Liked eye contact to bring in sections or specific instruments.
He could become angry if mucked about by the orchestra, then would make his specific irritations known in a tense but very quiet way. Had a good command of the orchestras, who tended to watch him closely. He used a stick and was clear with the beat. He did not waste and of the time in rehearsals. Organised and a clear sense of the architecture of a piece. He conducted Act 2 of Lohengrin as a vast arc and an exciting and involving performance. This included the major debut of Rosalind Plowright, just before she made the Trovatore with Gullini. Abbado also oversaw a stellar Verdi Requiem with Margaret Price and Jessye Norman swaying in the Lacrimosa. He brought over from Italy a chorus coach who we were supposed to watch during the rehearsals and performance. We could not get used to him and found him a distraction. It was the only occasion I encountered this arrangement, which I was told was common in Italy. The performance has been issued on DVD. In rehearsal Carearas made the odd fluff. He started to blame the orchestra for distracting him by dropping pencils. For the rest of the rehearsal, Abbado had to suffer a plague of dropped pencils every time Carearas opened his mouth. Price sang superbly transcending an outfit that made her look like Miss Piggie."

We also were involved in a terrific Berlioz Te Deum where the only jarring was that the organ was piped in from elsewhere. This is where time was wasted in a sense, as it absorbed many precious minutes getting the sound through at all, never mind balancing it. The performance itself went well and Abbado's way with the piece provided forward momentum, but he never rushed. This is a piece that does not need to be mauled about and each movement unfolds by providing a sensible tempo and then surning the screws bit by bit, just exactly what he did. He asked for staggered breathing so as not to break some of the long lines of melody up.

At the rehearsals for the Lohengrin that I mentioned above, the offstage brass went a bit too far offstage, assuming they had done their bit, they left the building. So, Abbado cued them in, silence, then scurrying as someone went off to find out why the brass had not played. We then had a really impressive display of suppressed fury from Abbado. We had been well schooled in the etiquette when anything went wrong in the orchestra; we did not react at all or whisper to one another or smile.....the orchestras could get tetchy and certainly did not want to detect any reactions from us.

There was quite a row about this incident after the rehearsal, behind closed doors, and that is as it should be.

Mike

[jochanaan]

One of my favorite recordings of all is of the first two Bartok piano concertos with Abbado leading the Chicago Symphony and--guess who?--Pollini at the piano. In many ways it's even better than the "legendary" Geza Anda recordings; flawless playing from both orchestra and soloist, awesome dynamics and extreme energy under perfect control.

I'm also a great fan of the Schubert symphonic cycle, which I've only heard over the radio.

Happy Belated Birthday, Maestro!

[bhodges]

One of my favorite recordings of all is of the first two Bartok piano concertos with Abbado leading the Chicago Symphony and--guess who?--Pollini at the piano. In many ways it's even better than the "legendary" Geza Anda recordings; flawless playing from both orchestra and soloist, awesome dynamics and extreme energy under perfect control.

Oh yes, I love that recording, too (and my first exposure to those two concertos).  I've gotten to like other versions of them in the meantime, but I do like Pollini's way with these, especially in No. 1. 

--Bruce

[Drasko]

One of the undoubtedly finest today. His championing of Mussorgsky should be mentioned.