Claudio Abbado: 10 great recordings with 10 different orchestras

Mendelssohn Symphonies Nos 1-5; Overtures

London Symphony Orchestra (DG)

'This was one of Abbado’s biggest recording projects with the orchestra of which he was music director and remains a richly rewarding legacy...' Read full review

Berg Wozzeck

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (DG)

'One is aware that this is a genuine performance, not a studio replica of one. A tiny example is the way that Behrens's voice momentarily breaks with pity and guilt as Marie thanks Wozzeck for giving her his wages: it is a spur-of-the-moment thing, even an involuntary one, and certainly not premeditated; it is over in a second, but it adds a poignantly graphic stroke to her portrayal...' Read full review

Gramophone Recording of the Year 1986

Rossini Il viaggio a Reims

Chamber Orchestra of Europe (DG)

'Abbado's conducting is masterly. His ear for Rossini's sonorities cannot be faulted. The wind playing is exemplary and the strings of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe wonderfully catch that peculiarly Rossinian sound, fire and ice at the same time...' Read full review 

Gramophone Opera Award 2006

Mozart Die Zauberflöte

Gustav Mahler Chamber Orchestra (DG)

'This is certainly the most desirable version using modern instruments to appear since Solti's second recording in 1990...' Read full review

Gramophone Recording of the Year 2006

Mahler Symphony No 6

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (DG)

'Whatever the revolution in playing standards since January 1966, when Barbirolli conducted Mahler's Sixth in Berlin, I can't remember hearing a tauter, more refined performance than this, nor one that dispenses so completely with the heavy drapes of old-style Mahler interpretation...' Read full review

Verdi Macbeth 

Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Milan (DG)

'The recording is glorious, reconciling pit and stage and putting the entire drama tangibly, lucidly before us. The editing, the matching and linking of scene with scene, has also been done with more than usual care and imagination...' Read full review 

Debussy Nocturnes. Ravel Daphnis et Chloé. Pavane pour une infant défunte. Scriabin Le poème de l’extase

Boston Symphony Orchestra (DG)

'Anyone who wants to wallow in a warm bath of French impressionism rather than be coolly stimulated will love this record...' Read full review 

Mahler Symphony No 7

Chicago Symphony Orchestra (DG)

'As ever, Abbado is the unpretentious, keen-eared elucidator. So conscientious is he that there are moments in the first movement when it's possible to think the score over-annotated by the composer...' Read full review

Gramophone Opera Award 2012

Beethoven Fidelio

Lucerne Festival Orchestra (Decca) 

'One of the many glories of this thrillingly articulated Fidelio is the playing of the basses and lower strings, sharp-featured and black as the pit of Acheron...' Read full review

Gramophone Concerto Award 2012

Berg. Beethoven Violin Concertos

Isabelle Faust vn Orchestra Mozart (Harmonia Mundi HMC90 2105) Buy from Amazon

'It’s entirely characteristic of this performance that the sudden orchestral outburst at the end of the Larghetto, heralding the cadenza that leads to the finale, which so often seems inappropriately formal, here comes as a shocking surprise, a rude awakening from an exquisite dream...'  Read full review

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