Claudio Abbado, Orchestra Mozart play Bach in 2012. L'Aquila's inauguratory concert after disaster.

In memoriam, maestro.

Claudio Abbado

June 26, 1933 - January 20, 2014

Simple, beautiful readings of Bach,

played by the Orchestra Mozart Bologna and an all-star soloist roster. 

I would wish to be remembered for having participated in soundmaking like this, for its feeling of positivity and camaraderie.

Johannes Sebastian Bach

Sunday October 7, 2012 at 15h30

Auditorium del Parco
L'Aquila, Italy

ORCHESTRA MOZART BOLOGNA
CLAUDIO ABBADO, conductor

ISABELLE FAUST violin
RAPHAEL CHRIST violin
FRANCESCO SENESE violin
WOLFRAM CHRIST viola
BEATRICE MUTHELET viola
CHAIM STELLER viola
GABRIELE GEMINIANI violoncello
ISEUT CHUAT violoncello
LUCA FRANZETTI violoncello
ALOIS POSCH contrabass
JACQUES ZOON flute
KAI FROEMBGEN oboe
REINHOLD FRIEDRICH trombone
ENRICO CACCIARI harpsichord

Bach:Concerto per violino,oboe,archi e continuo in Do minore BWV 1060
(Isabelle Faust violin, Kai Froembgen oboe)

Bach:Concerto per viola, archi e continuo in Re maggiore,
from BWV 169, BWV 49, BWV 1053 (Wolfram Christ viola)

Bach:Suite-Ouverture n. 2 in Si minore BWV 1067(Jacques Zoon flute)

BachConcerto Brandeburghese n. 3 in Sol maggiore BWV 1048

Bach:Concerto per violino, archi e continuo n. 2 in Mi maggiore BWV 1042
(Isabelle Faust violin)

Bach:Concerto Brandeburghese n. 2 in Fa maggiore BWV 1047
(Gregory Ahss violin, Jacques Zoon flute, Kai Froembgen oboe,
Reinhold Friedrich trombone)

Radio3 stream 128 Kbps

Orchestra Mozart conducted by Claudio Abbado officially inaugurated the new
temporary Auditorium in L'Aquila with a special concert in the presence of
the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano.



All thanks to Alessandro from concertarchive. I straightup repackaged his broadcast recording, retagged and made up some dubious art for it.

A Mahler Seventh that recalls its artistic muses Rembrandt and Mann through a fired-up Abbado-led Youth Orchestra!

Symphony Number 7, by Gustav Mahler

Claudio Abbado, conductor
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
1999 Edinburgh Festival
Usher Hall, Edinburgh
August 17, 1999


Ah! the M7! My absolute favorite Mahler symphony -for the past 3 years at least...(before that i had protracted flings with the 2nd, 4th, forever the 9th of course, and a real time of it with 3...)

Rembrandt's "The Night Watch"( or "The Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch") is said to have been influential to the second movement। It fits wonderfully, as the cacophonous military breakdowns so common to this composer been seldom better served; pace Alphons Diepenbrock, who knew Mahler and is quoted as saying, "...It is not true that [Gustav Mahler] wanted actually to depict The Night Watch. He cited the painting only as a point of comparison. [The Nachtmusik I movement] is a walk at night, and he said himself that he thought of it as a patrol. Beyond that he said something different every time. What is certain is that it is a march, full of fantastic chiaroscuro — hence the Rembrandt parallel..."

And the Andante amoroso? A risky, engaging slant is enhanced by the youth orchestra's edgy feel under Abbado. it almost hearkens to the other cultural reference commonly stuck to this piece: that Adrian Leverkuhn's magnificent violin concerto's ending was really this penultimate movement. (This imaginary composer, Leverkuhn, from Thomas Mann's awesome novel "Doktor Faust", also wrote a "Faust" cantata which is supposedly based upon the second movement of the M7!)

En fin, the youth orchestra plays hard and to win. The bite is there at all times, even in the slower sections. They are nervously present and it sounds as if they refuse to let the performance fall into a rote exercise, even if for the barest moment.

From a broadcast, so it is somewhat hissy. Have a fit then, if you seek purely audiophile quality; just know that the performance gods have waved their magic fingers at this, Through Claudio Abbado. He has commercially released 2 other performances of the Mahler Symphony no.7 , one in 1984 and again in 2001 (Chicago SO and Berlin Phil, respectively). I prefer this one to those as well as to [most!] of the 21 other recordings of this work I, unreasonably and ridiculously enough, own
...
It is, worth it.

**Mil gracias to albanberg at dimeadozen for this!**