«It sometimes happens, at the end of great masterpieces, that I feel a climate of real involvement between me, the orchestra, the audience: as if everyone were holding their breath together. And when the final note goes out there remains a great silence, as if contemplating something that has happened...". With these words Claudio Abbado spoke about his relationship with music, musicians and the public .
When the last note disappeared, the magic remained, that magic that the great conductor, born in Milan but Sardinian by adoption – Alghero was his good retreat – was able to give for half a century. Half a century of life and music that the journalist Mauro Balestrazzi has decided to reconstruct - ten years after the death of the great master - in the volume " Claudio Abbado, note by note " (Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2024, Euro 40.00, pp. 496).
It is a work of great interest even for those who are not experts or long-time music lovers because it aims to establish an unprecedented image of Claudio Abbado, following his artistic journey almost day by day, from the first concerts like pianist at the last unforgettable events in Lucerne, a few days before his disappearance.
In particular, Balestrazzi reconstructs, with tasty anecdotes, the lesser-known period of Abbado's career, the initial one, also browsing through the exam reports at the Conservatory. It thus emerges that Abbado was undecided for a long time between a career as a piano soloist and conducting. The master's long apprenticeship also emerges, given that Abbado was certainly not a child prodigy. Once he took off, in the mid-1960s and was in his thirties, his rise was, however, irresistible, constant, decisive for the contemporary musical panorama. As the journalist and musicologist Oreste Bossini wrote with happy summary: “The influence of a character like Abbado was incalculable and left an indelible mark on musical life not only in Europe, but also internationally. In fact, there is no other artist who has contributed in equal measure to the development and training of young musicians. The orchestras across Europe today are full of professors who have passed through the experience of the ensembles that Abbado founded or contributed decisively to growing".
For this reason the figure of Claudio Abbado continues to represent a unique point of reference in the musical world . No other conductor after Herbert von Karajan has left such a strong impact on the level of interpretation, and it is no coincidence that his recordings continue to be published and studied . No other conductor has led, obviously at different times, two theaters like La Scala and the Vienna State Opera and two orchestras like the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic. A giant, a great Italian, at a certain point more loved outside our borders than at home, as unfortunately often happens in our Italy.