Word: abbado
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MENDELSSOHN: Five Symphonies; Three Overtures. Claudio Abbado conducting the London Symphony Orchestra (Deutsche Grammophon; 4 LPs or CDs). Imagine the history of 19th century music if Felix Mendelssohn had been the great romantic icon instead of Beethoven. In place of egocentric storms there would be grace and lucidity; instead of anguish there would be serenity and inner peace. The masterpieces produced by such disparate composers as Brahms, Wagner and Mahler % under Beethoven's spell are justly prized, of course, but the romantics could have used a little less irascibility and more agreeability...
Beethoven: Violin Concerto (Violinist Gidon Kremer, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner, conductor; Philips). Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 (Pianist Ivo Pogorelich, Chicago Symphony, Claudio Abbado, conductor; Deutsche Grammophon). These concertos, featuring two electrifying performers, are of unusual interest. Pogorelich has technique and temperament in equal measure; right from the piano's cascading entry, this is hot-blooded, Russian-style Chopin, more than a continent removed from the genteel salons of 19th century Paris. The Kremer-Marriner partnership in the Beethoven results in an elegant performance deliberately at odds with the customarily virtuosic way of viewing...
Originally, Maazel had declared that he would not return to Vienna after his contract expired in 1986. With what appeared to be almost gleeful haste, the opera company signed his replacement, precipitating his departure rapido: Italian Claudio Abbado, 50, who finished as music director at Milan's La Scala opera house last month. (Maazel's purely administrative duties have fallen to new General Director Claus Helmut Drese.) To fill Abbado's prized post, La Scala tapped another Italian, Philadelphia Orchestra Conductor Riccardo Muti, 42. In 1982 Muti rejected a similar offer from London's Royal Opera...
...given moment, the number of major conductors in the world is insufficient to accommodate the opera companies and orchestras that are clamoring for their services. The top maestros jump from podium to podium to fill the gaps and often hold more than one job at a time; Abbado, for example, also conducts the London Symphony, and next year Previn will add London's Royal Philharmonic to his duties...
Bartók: The Miraculous Mandarin; Two Portraits (Deutsche Grammophon). Bartók's bloodcurdling ballet gets an elemental reading from Claudio Abbado and the London Symphony...