Claudio Abbado was an Italian conductor noted for performances of the works of
Gustav Mahler who held top positions at several of the world's great orchestras
and released a long list of recordings of compositions by Brahms, Schubert,
Mozart, Rachmaninov, Beethoven, Haydn and Bruckner. He was associated with La
Scala, London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Vienna State
Opera. He founded the Wien Modern Festival in Vienna in 1988 and established the
Lucerne Festival Orchestra in 2003.
Born in Milan, he learned to play the violin and piano from his violinist f...