Andrew Clements picks his highlights of Abbado's extensive and varied recording career. The conductor's death, aged 80, was announced this morning.
*Mahler: Symphony No 3*
Larsson/ London Symphony Chorus/Berliner Philharmoniker (Deutsche Grammophon 1999)
Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in London, this is not only one of the greatest of Abbado's Mahler recordings, but one of the finest performances of any of the symphonies ever issued on disc. It has all the qualities that made Abbado the greatest Mahler interpreter of his age - an unerring sense of structure and musical purpose, a profound expressive intensity that never became remotely sentimental, and the unique ability to make an orchestra apparently transcend its own capabilities.
*Schubert: The Symphonies*
Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Deutsche Grammophon 1986-87)
Abbado was instrumental in the founding of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in 1981, and worked with it regularly in its formative years. Among the recordings he made during this time, this set of Schubert's symphonies stands out. After Mahler, Schubert was perhaps the symphonist with whom Abbado revealed the closest affinity, as the wit, elegance, charm, and - in the later works the psychological depths - of these performances reveal.
*Ravel: Piano Concerto; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No 3*
Argerich/Berlin Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon, 1967)
Of all the musical partnerships that Abbado forged with some of the greatest soloists of our time, three stand out. He worked regularly with Maurizio Pollini, with whom he recorded the Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann concertos, as well as a number of 20th-century works, while he was one of the select band of conductors with whom Martha Argerich would appear and record. Their collaborations were always special, and this early recording of two of Argerich's specialities captures their chemistry perfectly.
*Schumann: Scenes from Faust*
Terfel/Mattila/Rootering/Bonney//Graham/Swedish Radio Choir/Berlin Philharmonic (Sony Classical 1994)
As well as supreme musicality, intellectual curiosity was an important part of Abbado's approach to conducting, which led him investigate a wide range of neglected works, from a Schubert opera, to orchestral fragments of Mussorgsky, an early cantata by Debussy, to Schumann's choral masterpiece. The performance represents a real act of musical rehabilitation, any musical weaknesses were erased by sheer single-mindedness of the performance.
*Simon Boccanegra*
Freni/Cappucilli/Careras/Ghiaurov/van Dam/Teatro della Scala (Deutsche Grammophon 1977)
It's hard to choose between Abbado's outstanding Verdi recordings, most dating from the 1970s and 80s when he was music director at La Scala, Milan. This version of Boccanegra, with an outstanding cast, is a genuine classic, though, not only as a souvenir of what was one of the landmark stagings (by Giorgio Strehler) in the history of Verdi production, but as a demonstration of the searching intensity Abbado brought to the composer, and his ability to characterise every detail without losing sight of the whole dramatic shape.
*Berg: Wozzeck*
Grundheber/Behrens/Raffeiner/Zednik/Haugland/Vienna State Opera (Deutsche Grammophon 1987)
Abbado recorded all but one of Alban Berg's works (his second, unfinished opera, Lulu being the omission). He was in many ways, the perfect Berg conductor, able to balance the music's debts to both late romanticism and modernism perfectly, without compromising either the music's formal clarity or its emotional power. A quarter of a century after it was recorded, this still remains the finest of all Wozzeck recordings on disc.
*Stockhausen: Gruppen; Kurtág: Stele; Grabstein für Stephan *
Berlin Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon 1994)
Abbado conducted a wide range of contemporary music. He was particularly associated with that of his friend Luigi Nono, but he premiered works by many other living composers too, and was one of the first great conductors to tackle Stockhausen's tour de force for three orchestras, Gruppen. This live recording is paired with two works by Kurtág, one of which, Stele, was composed for Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic. Reported by guardian.co.uk 12 hours ago.
*Mahler: Symphony No 3*
Larsson/ London Symphony Chorus/Berliner Philharmoniker (Deutsche Grammophon 1999)
Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall in London, this is not only one of the greatest of Abbado's Mahler recordings, but one of the finest performances of any of the symphonies ever issued on disc. It has all the qualities that made Abbado the greatest Mahler interpreter of his age - an unerring sense of structure and musical purpose, a profound expressive intensity that never became remotely sentimental, and the unique ability to make an orchestra apparently transcend its own capabilities.
*Schubert: The Symphonies*
Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Deutsche Grammophon 1986-87)
Abbado was instrumental in the founding of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in 1981, and worked with it regularly in its formative years. Among the recordings he made during this time, this set of Schubert's symphonies stands out. After Mahler, Schubert was perhaps the symphonist with whom Abbado revealed the closest affinity, as the wit, elegance, charm, and - in the later works the psychological depths - of these performances reveal.
*Ravel: Piano Concerto; Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No 3*
Argerich/Berlin Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon, 1967)
Of all the musical partnerships that Abbado forged with some of the greatest soloists of our time, three stand out. He worked regularly with Maurizio Pollini, with whom he recorded the Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann concertos, as well as a number of 20th-century works, while he was one of the select band of conductors with whom Martha Argerich would appear and record. Their collaborations were always special, and this early recording of two of Argerich's specialities captures their chemistry perfectly.
*Schumann: Scenes from Faust*
Terfel/Mattila/Rootering/Bonney//Graham/Swedish Radio Choir/Berlin Philharmonic (Sony Classical 1994)
As well as supreme musicality, intellectual curiosity was an important part of Abbado's approach to conducting, which led him investigate a wide range of neglected works, from a Schubert opera, to orchestral fragments of Mussorgsky, an early cantata by Debussy, to Schumann's choral masterpiece. The performance represents a real act of musical rehabilitation, any musical weaknesses were erased by sheer single-mindedness of the performance.
*Simon Boccanegra*
Freni/Cappucilli/Careras/Ghiaurov/van Dam/Teatro della Scala (Deutsche Grammophon 1977)
It's hard to choose between Abbado's outstanding Verdi recordings, most dating from the 1970s and 80s when he was music director at La Scala, Milan. This version of Boccanegra, with an outstanding cast, is a genuine classic, though, not only as a souvenir of what was one of the landmark stagings (by Giorgio Strehler) in the history of Verdi production, but as a demonstration of the searching intensity Abbado brought to the composer, and his ability to characterise every detail without losing sight of the whole dramatic shape.
*Berg: Wozzeck*
Grundheber/Behrens/Raffeiner/Zednik/Haugland/Vienna State Opera (Deutsche Grammophon 1987)
Abbado recorded all but one of Alban Berg's works (his second, unfinished opera, Lulu being the omission). He was in many ways, the perfect Berg conductor, able to balance the music's debts to both late romanticism and modernism perfectly, without compromising either the music's formal clarity or its emotional power. A quarter of a century after it was recorded, this still remains the finest of all Wozzeck recordings on disc.
*Stockhausen: Gruppen; Kurtág: Stele; Grabstein für Stephan *
Berlin Philharmonic (Deutsche Grammophon 1994)
Abbado conducted a wide range of contemporary music. He was particularly associated with that of his friend Luigi Nono, but he premiered works by many other living composers too, and was one of the first great conductors to tackle Stockhausen's tour de force for three orchestras, Gruppen. This live recording is paired with two works by Kurtág, one of which, Stele, was composed for Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic. Reported by guardian.co.uk 12 hours ago.