Claudio Abbado, Wiener Philharmoniker – Brahms: 21 Ungarische Tänze / Hungarian Dances (1983) [Japan 2019] SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Claudio Abbado, Wiener Philharmoniker – Brahms: 21 Ungarische Tänze / Hungarian Dances (1983) [Japan 2019]
PS3 Rip | SACD ISO | DSD64 2.0 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 48:18 min | Scans included | 1,95 GB
or FLAC (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/96 kHz | Scans included | 1,0 GB
Japanese SACD Reissue 2019 | Deutsche Grammmophon / Esoteric Company, Japan # ESSG-90200

At their best, and especially on home ground in central European repertory, Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic could produce electrifying music-making, as on the present recording of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances made in Vienna’s Sofiensaal in 1982. The recording was commissioned as part of Deutsche Grammophon’s superb 8-volume, 62-LP “Brahms Edition”, a survey of the composer’s complete musical output which was released in 1983 to mark the 150th anniversary of Brahms’s birth. Gramophone magazine’s Robert Layton commended the warmth, eloquence and virtuosity of the Vienna Philharmonic’s playing, adding that, though Abbado was scrupulous in his observation of the letter of the score, “the spirit of what Brahms liked to refer to as his ‘genuine gypsy children’ is always in evidence”.

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Claudio Abbado, Chamber Orchestra Of Europe – Mozart: Don Giovanni (1998) [Reissue 2004] MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Claudio Abbado, Chamber Orchestra Of Europe – Mozart: Don Giovanni (1998) [Reissue 2004]
PS3 Rip | 3x SACD ISO | DST64 2.0 & 5.1 > 1-bit/2.8224 MHz | 165:23 minutes | Front/Rear cover | 11,7 GB
or FLAC 2.0 Stereo (converted with foobar2000 to tracks) 24bit/88,2 kHz | Front/Rear cover | 2,99 GB
Features Stereo and Multichannel Surround Sound | Deutsche Grammophon # 474996-2

Arguably the greatest opera ever written, the Mozart/Da Ponte depiction of the last twenty-four hours of the legendary libertine is performed here in the standard version combining the two versions Mozart prepared. Abbado offers modern instruments with certain nods to period performance practice–many appoggiaturas, comparatively fleet tempos, and some modest ornamentation.

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Claudio Abbado – Verdi: Macbeth (1976/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Claudio Abbado – Verdi: Macbeth (1976/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 02:33:21 minutes | 4,83 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Lady Macbeth’s introduction alone, “Vieni t’affretta”, sung by the formidable Shirley Verrett is enough to make this an immortal record! But there’s a lot more to come. Recorded in the middle of a 1975 anthology performance at La Scala in Milan and superbly produced by Giorgio Strehler, this album possesses a theatricality that is difficult to recreate in a studio. Claudio Abbado directs with great subtlety and eloquence. Domingo, Cappuccilli, and Ghiaurov are all on top form. It’s rare that this blend of Shakespeare and Verdi is performed with such a perfect sense of the dramatic. This is a brilliantly unique record.  – François Hudry

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Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado – Mahler: Symphony No.5 In C-Sharp Minor (1981/2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado – Mahler: Symphony No.5 In C-Sharp Minor (1981/2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:12:26 minutes | 2,70 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon

As with just about all the Mahler symphonies, Abbado has made multiple recordings of the Fifth, but this, his first, remains his finest, and an exceptional performance by any standard. It has all of the famed Chicago virtuosity but also a welcome attention to detail and willingness to savor a phrase that you almost never find with Solti’s Chicago Mahler. It’s great to hear a coda to the second movement that for once does not sound anti-climactic. We expect the horn playing in the scherzo to be stunning, and so it is, but the music also has grace, charm, and plenty of atmosphere at an appropriately relaxed basic tempo that, as you can hear, leaves plenty of space for the big moments to expand.

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Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado – Claudio Abbado: The Last Concert (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado – Claudio Abbado: The Last Concert (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:35:58 minutes | 923 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Claudio Abbado (1933–2014) was one of the outstanding personalities in the history of the Berliner Philharmoniker. In May 2013, their unique partnership ended with Abbado’s last concert with the orchestra. The programme included two of the most important works of musical Romanticism: Hector Berlioz’s visionary Symphonie fantastique and Felix Mendelssohn’s magical, shimmering music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. To mark the second anniversary of Claudio Abbado’s death on 20 January 2016, audio and video recordings of this memorable evening have been released in a hardcover luxury edition. With comprehensive articles, bonus videos and previously unpublished photographs, it documents Abbado’s work with the orchestra whose chief conductor he was from 1990 to 2002.

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Claudio Abbado – Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia (1972/2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Claudio Abbado – Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia (1972/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:18:33 minutes | 2,43 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Deutsche Grammophon is proud to release this truly legendary opera recording from the golden age of stereo, remastered in 96kHz from the original analogue tapes, presented on HighResAudio. The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with an Italian libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais’s French comedy Le Barbier de Séville (1775). The première of Rossini’s opera (under the title Almaviva, o sia L’inutile precauzione) took place on 20 February 1816 at the Teatro Argentina, Rome.

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Martha Argerich, London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado – Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 In E Minor, Op.11 / Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 In E Flat, S.124 (1968/2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Martha Argerich, London Symphony Orchestra, Claudio Abbado – Chopin: Piano Concerto No.1 In E Minor, Op.11 / Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 In E Flat, S.124 (1968/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 55:39 minutes | 2,10 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Classical masterpiece: Frederic Chopin and Franz Liszt were both piano virtuosi of the highest order. So it’s no surprise to find that their concertos were composed as vehicles for them to flaunt their digital wizardry — though the two masters strutted their stuff in very different ways. Chopin adored the bel canto operas of Bellini and Donizetti, and both his concertos are like extended operatic scenes in which the piano acts the role of the prima donna, and the pianist is required to play the music with a limpid, singing tone and supple phrasing. Liszt’s performances were much more of a spectacle; supposedly, his bravura displays had similar effect on women as Elvis Presley’s gyrating hips would about a century later. In his Concerto No. 1, the pianist must thunder up and down the keyboard as well as dazzle in dizzying flurries of notes. In both concertos, the orchestra is there primarily to provide a solid, ornamental frame for the soloist. Martha Argerich’s playing probably would have knocked the socks off of Chopin, Liszt, or any other 19th-century virtuoso, for that matter. She can thunder and dazzle with the best of ’em — and she does so thrillingly in this performance of the Liszt Concerto. She also plays Chopin with melting beauty, which is perhaps one reason why this recording helped to gain Argerich a cultlike following.

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Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado – Symphony No. 9 In D Minor (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado - Symphony No. 9 In D Minor (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download

Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Claudio Abbado – Symphony No. 9 In D Minor (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 01:03:00 minutes | 614 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

In January 2014, music lovers worldwide were saddened to learn that Claudio Abbado had passed away. Deutsche Grammophon feels immensely blessed and proud to be releasing together with Accentus Music Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, which was recorded as part of Abbado’s final concert.

The concert received very positive reviews from the press:

“Mr. Abbado led an otherworldly account of Bruckner’s 9th Symphony. Never have I heard as magisterial and moving performance of the work as that given by the 80-year-old maestro and his fabulous Lucerne Festival Orchestra.” (Wall Street Journal)

The most recent Abbado / Mozart release featuring Martha Argerich has not only received critical acclaim worldwide, but did really well commercially: the album entered the pop charts in Italy at 16 and is still in the German classical charts at number 4.

With 40,000 units sold today, it is one of DG’ s bestselling core classical albums of 2014 & is still going strong.

This new and unique Bruckner album has a real potential amongst the core classical audiences worldwide.

To support the release, DG has filmed an interview with Sid McLauchlan who has been Claudio Abbado’s DG producer for many years.

The concert was recorded by Accentus Music during the 75th Lucerne Festival in 2013 with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

This release is a fitting tribute to an irreplaceable artist, who was one of the greatest conductors and most inspiring musical figures of our time.

With this record, Deutsche Grammophon and Accentus Music wish to pay tribute to the maestro and honour what would have been his 81st birthday at the end of June

Composer: Anton Bruckner
Conductor: Claudio Abbado
Orchestra/Ensemble: Lucerne Festival Orchestra
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Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado – Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado - Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz] Download

Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado – Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 25:07 minutes | 261 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

The edition brings together Berliner Philharmoniker recordings from the last ten years. It includes the nine completed symphonies and the Adagio of the Tenth, whose performance under the direction of Claudio Abbado on the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death is one of the highlights. In addition to chief conductor Kirill Petrenko and his predecessor Sir Simon Rattle, the edition features other outstanding Mahler interpreters closely associated with the orchestra: Gustavo Dudamel, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
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Claudio Abbado, Wiener Philharmoniker – Mahler – Symphony No.4 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Claudio Abbado, Wiener Philharmoniker – Mahler – Symphony No.4 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 58:02 minutes | 2,92 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon

After hearing most of Abbado’s Mahler, early and late, I had formed the opinion that he steadily improved, moving from caution to a real and deep understanding of Mahler’s world. But just in case there were some early gems, I went back to this Fourth Syms. recorded in Vienna in 1978 (it can also be had in a bargain twofer with an almost equally impressive Sym. #2 from Chicago).

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Claudio Abbado’s Last Concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker (2013) Blu-ray 1080i AVC DTS-HD 5.1

Name: Claudio Abbado’s Last Concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Released: 2016
Genre: Classical
Conductor: Claudio Abbado
Сomposer: Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)
Artist: Deborah York (soprano), Stella Doufexis (mezzo-soprano), Damen des Chors des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Berliner Philharmoniker

Label: © Berlin Phil Media GmbH
Recorded: Philharmonie Berlin 18, 19, 21 May 2013
Quality: Blu-ray Audio/Video
Duration: 01:36:07 +
Video#1: MPEG-4 AVC 950 kbps / 1920*1080i / 29.970 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Video#2: MPEG-4 AVC 20999 kbps / 1920*1080i / 29.970 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1
Audio#1: German DTS-HD MA 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3709 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Audio#2: German LPCM 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitle: Japanese
Size: 45.46 GB

This marks the second anniversary of Claudio Abbado’s death on 20 January 2014 aged eighty. The set – on CD and Blu-ray (audio and video) – captures Abbado’s final concert with the Berliner Philharmoniker‏ in May 2013. It was the end of a treasured partnership that bore plentiful and remarkable fruit.

Abbado first conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker‏ in 1966, the start of a unique relationship that was to last nearly half a century. Succeeding Herbert von Karajan into the biggest job in the world of classical music Abbado was elected by the members of the orchestra as chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker‏ serving from 1990 to 2002. He became only the fifth chief conductor in the orchestra’s history. Following his resignation from that post Abbado would return to the orchestra as a guest. The relationship between orchestra and Abbado remained cordial and these appearances as guest were clearly events to savour.

In May 2013 there was a series of three concerts at the Philharmonie which turned out to be Abbado’s last with the Berliner Philharmoniker. They were described as a “triumph” by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Abbado’s programme comprised two key works from composers both close contemporaries: Felix Mendelssohn’s enchanting A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hector Berlioz’s progressive Symphonie fantastique.

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