Claudio Abbado

One of the top conductors of the 20th century, Claudio Abbado, left an enormous recording catalog covering a wide range of composers, from Mozart to Iannis Xenakis. In 1958, Abbado won the Koussevitzky Conducting Competition at the Tanglewood Festival. In 1965, Abbado conducted the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In the late '60s, he conducted several productions at La Scala, and in 1971, he was named the company's music director. Abbado became principal conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic in 1971 and began to appear frequently with the London Symphony, becoming its principal conductor in 1979. In 1989, Abbado became music director of the Berlin Philharmonic, remaining in that post until 2002. He gave up his Vienna State Opera post in 1991 but remained active in Vienna. After his death, reissues of his recordings continued to appear, and by the early 2020s, his catalog comprised well over 500 items.