- Music Director at the Vienna State Opera (1986-1991).
- Has recorded all of Beethoven's Overtures with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.
- Italian-born conductor, best known for his work as Music Director for La Scala (1971 - 1986), then Music Director of Vienna Philharmonic (since 1971) and Vienna State Opera (1986 - 1991), London Symphony Orchestra (LSO, 1979 - 1987), and Berlin Philharmonic (1989 - 2002, and 2004 - present).
- Fathered a son, named Mikhael (born in 1991), with Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova, who was 30 years younger when she worked and lived with Abbado in London and in his Vienna penthouse for 5 years. Abbado left Mullova when she was on the 7th month of her pregnancy. Abbado pays maintenance for his son.
- Music Director of La Scala Opera House in Milan, Italy (1968-1986).
- One of the most renowned conductors in contemporary music, his fame is also due to a rich discography. He is considered by some to be one of the greatest interpreters of German Romantic composers, as he recorded the complete cycle of the symphonies of Beethoven (twice), Mahler (twice), Mendhelssohn,Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner...all for the prestigious Deutsche Grammophone label. In his youth his work was more focused on the field of contemporary music (Hindemith, Schoenberg, Prokofiev) and the Opera (Verdi and Rossini mainly).
- In 2000 was diagnosed with stomach cancer and later had surgery to remove a portion of his digestive system.
- Fathered a son, named Mikhael (born in 1991), with Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova.
- Brother of composer Marcello Abbado.
- As a child during WWII, he scrawled "Viva Bartok" on a public wall; the contemporary Hungarian composer was one of his musical idols. During the war, graffiti was often used in Italy for political expression. The authorities saw the foreign name and assumed Bartók was an anti-Fascist activist. They came to Abbado's house, wanting to know who this fellow Bartok was. Abbado showed them a musical score by Bartok, and they left.
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