Claudio Abbado : The Longest Pause

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung March 7, 2001

By Gerhard R. Koch
BERLIN. Claudio Abbado has just performed Beethoven's nine symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic in Rome and Vienna, and received enthusiastic reactions from audiences, critics, the general public, politicians and fellow musicians alike. Success in both cities was extraordinarily important to him.
Ever since he left La Scala in Milan in 1986, he has made only rare appearances in Italy. If Riccardo Muti, his successor in Milan, star tenor Luciano Pavarotti and even the Italian president are asking him to conduct at La Scala again, it almost seems to be because of a guilty conscience: Abbado's triumphant Beethoven cycle has made it clear what the former "land of music" lacks. The emphatic response from the Viennese points to this as well, especially since the same critics who contributed so much toward Abbado's resigned departure from the state opera in 1991, after all the intrigues there, are now falling over themselves with praise.
The successes are doing Abbado a great deal of good, at any rate. They would anyone, of course, but in his case there are other contributing factors. Those who saw photographs of the conductor over the past few months were shocked at how emaciated and miserable he looked. This naturally gave rise to a great deal of speculation. This was even more of a strain upon Abbado than the illness itself, which was indeed serious, so much so that he took
the step -- which must certainly have been difficult for him -- of countering all the speculation. In the presence of the two Berlin physicians who are treating him, he not only made a clear statement about his state of health but also commented on his further plans, talked about his present condition and also discussed several ideas and guidelines about art. He seemed more talkative and eager to communicate than in past conversations. Abbado made no secret of the fact that his disease was extremely serious: Acancerous tumor had necessitated the removal of his entire stomach. He said the operation was a complete success, and the doctors agreed: He is now out of danger. Eating is an extraordinary problem, of course, requiring a great deal of time, patience and discipline, but the sensational weight loss has now been halted at any rate, and Abbado has now even gained a few pounds.
In a conversation in the evening after a rehearsal, he came across as energetic and ready for his next assignment. He said he was looking forward to his concert with the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, with whom he had discussed the possibility of such a project 15 or 20 years ago in Chicago. He approved of the fusion of jazz and symphonic music, under the slogan "Music is Fun on Earth," though he did not seem overly enthusiastic about such crossover activities. And even though he said he was unwilling to forgo the lighter items on the performance program during his penultimate season as principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic -- he is preparing Giuseppi Verdi's "Falstaff" for the Salzburg Easter Festival -- his intense memory of thematically serious and heavyweight concepts (Faust, Prometheus,
Shakespeare) came through clearly in conversation.
Even though the proportion of New Music in the Philharmonic's performance programs has declined, and the orchestra's partly rather conservative public has not appreciated everything, Abbado confessed that moving forward in music continues to be of fundamental importance to him in every way. In this regard he has remained true to his idol and fellow-traveler Luigi Nono, whom he still considers the most important Italian composer of the 20th century. Abbado is especially fascinated in retrospect by the extreme positions, such as Nono's early work Il canto Sospeso and his late work Prometeo. He even displayed approval, albeit guarded, of the gentle distance most people keep from Al gran sole, the main work of Nono's Milan phase. Yet Nono continues to be of decisive importance to him, and Abbado recalled emphatically of how moving it was at the performance of the Canto Sospeso to have the letters of the condemned that form its textual basis read out loud. He was also enthusiastic about Diario polaco, another early work by Nono that is hardly ever performed. Abbado said he had fond memories of a concert held in the inner sanctum of the Vienna Musikverein's Golden Hall, of all places, with new works by Nono, Wolfgang Rihm, Gyorgy Kurtag and Beat Furrer -- and young people performing them.
The theater continues to keep Abbado active. He said that now he has the time, he keeps on discovering new aspects of Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni," which he brought to the stage in Vienna with Luc Bondy, and in Aix-en-Provence one year earlier with Peter Brook. He added that he intends to continue working on "Tristan and Isolde," and that he is also planning a "Parsifal" with Peter Stein for Salzburg in 2002.
Abbado is particularly interested in the big, difficult, complex works whose structure alone defies easy accessibility. Significantly, he is most attracted by operas that pose considerable textual problems: Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina," and Verdi's "Macbeth," "Don Carlos" (which he has recorded in the complete French original version) and "Simon Boccanegra." The last is possibly Abbado's favorite work, and he said that after Milan, Vienna and Salzburg, he would like to conduct it once again in Ferrara. He also mentioned that he loved Mahler's Lied von der Erde and did not share the skepticism shown in some quarters. Yet he did not seem to be utterly exuberant about it, and said he might contemplate a performance of the final Abschied (Farewell) on its own. He did not consider the spontaneous idea of combining the Abschied and the introductory Adagio from Mahler's Tenth to be at all outlandish. Abbado was only vaguely familiar with the early work Das Klagende Lied, but at this point he asked quite frankly what others thought of it, and said that the suggestion of working on it was worth considering. Abbado admits to being increasingly moved these days by the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, which he played while still a young organist and pianist. After the St. Matthew Passion and the B Minor Mass he is now very much involved with the St. John Passion, that self-renewing source of excitement and inspiration. The Brandenburg Concertos, which he once recorded as a youngster (something he doesn't like to be reminded of), are also dear to his heart. Here he favors a truly contemporary performance practice that also takes the historical aspect into account.
He declared a firm faith in Wilhelm Furtwängler, but considered it impossible, at least as far as he himself was concerned, to go back to that style of conducting Beethoven. He also referred to the new edition by Jonathan del Mar, but conceded that Beethoven's numerous corrections always have to be taken into consideration anew: One can only talk to a certain
extent about an "ideal version."
Abbado confirmed that Claude Debussy was for him the greatest French composer, and said that he had conducted a great deal of his work. He also admitted to having had a particular fondness for the music of Sergei Prokofiev earlier in life: "The Love for Three Oranges" was the first opera he ever conducted.
Dimitri Shostakovich did not mean much to him earlier, but that has changed, and he is developing a new appreciation for the composer. Even though Abbado sees Prokofiev as superior to Shostakovich in terms of elegance, wit and lyricism, he regards the latter's grim intensity of expression, especially in several of his scherzos, as a highly characteristic feature. Abbado said he was planning to do what he could to promote Shostakovich's film music in the Berlin Philharmonic, adding that he considered the incidental music to "King Lear" to be his best, and was visibly excited at the prospect of conducting the music live during a screening of the film.
Abbado made no secret of how deeply his health crisis affected him, and of how he had to summon all his strength and cope with extreme challenges. The doctors should actually have dissuaded him from the Japan tour in November -- after all, he was conducting "Tristan and Isolde," a huge challenge even for young conductors. The fact that the doctors reluctantly agreed to his touring after all contributed much to his revitalization. He candidly admitted to having discovered a kind of new sensuality: He said he can smell, taste, see and even hear more keenly and intensely than ever before. Even experiences such as these can have a stabilizing influence. But he is still having to cut back in all kinds of ways. He said he had very fond thoughts of his house in the Fex Valley of the Upper Engadine, but added that the cold winter had done him little good because he is now so thin.
Abbado has certainly made a major contribution to Berlin cultural life, with all its diverse stimuli. He saw it as a shame that his New Music initiatives, also in the context of film and theater, had not met with a wholly favorable reception. When asked which audience he considered the best -- Milan, Vienna, London or Berlin -- he hesitated. But then he said that perhaps there is a criterion of artistic receptiveness after all: the pause between the end of Mahler's Ninth and the start of the applause. In Berlin, he said, it was markedly longer than in the other cities. It is hard to imagine a more sublimely emphatic declaration of faith in Berlin as a city of music.