Claudio Abbado

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 father Michelangelo Abbado and studied at the Milan Conservatory and the Vienna Academy of Music. He made his conducting debut in Trieste and after a competition win at Tanglewood he worked with various regional European orchestras. He debuted in New York in 1963 and at the Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1965. He became principal conductor with the Vienna Philharmonic in 1979 and later their music director. In 1989, he followed Herbert von Karajan as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic, spent time as music director of La Scala in Milan and was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra for most of the 1980s.

His first Grammy nominations came in 1976 for Best Opera Recording for 'Verdi: Macbeth' and Best Classical Choral Performance for 'Verdi: Opera Choruses' and he had 22 nominations including two wins with his final nod for Best Orchestral Performance for 'Schumann: Symphony No. 2; Overtures Manfred & Genoveva' in 2013. He had 13 recordings on the Billboard Classical Albums Chart with seven in the top 20.

Abbado died at his home in Bologna in 2014 aged 80 after a period of failing health. His final appearance was for a performance of unfinished symphonies by Schubert and Bruckner broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Station director and BBC Proms director Roger Wright said: "He was one of the most important conductors of his generation and leaves an enormous legacy of operatic and orchestral events."