Culture Senator Joe Chialo paid tribute to the former Philharmonic chief conductor, who is now commemorated by a plaque on his former home on Ludwigkirchplatz.
By Corina Kolbe
During his time as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Claudio Abbado lived in a pretty old building on Ludwigkirchplatz in Wilmersdorf. On the top floor, the self-confessed nature lover found a retreat with a view of the treetops, in the middle of the city and yet far away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
A Berlin commemorative plaque at Ludwigkirchstraße 9A now commemorates the prominent tenant who lived in the neighbourhood from 1989 to 2001.
In his welcoming speech, culture senator Joe Chialo praised Abbado as a “professional man who was always looking for magic in music”. The plaque was unveiled on the very day on which the artist, who died in 2014, would have celebrated his 90th birthday.
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| Claudio Abbado. Photo courtesy Deutsche Grammophon |
The eulogy by Wolfram Christ, formerly 1st solo violist with the Philharmoniker and still a member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra founded by Abbado, was touching. "I'm Claudio, don't call me Maestro" - that's how he introduced himself in Berlin at the time. He approached the Philharmoniker with “unaffected modesty and touching human warmth, almost naivety”.
According to Christ, his inimitable conducting and his expressive left hand could replace a thousand words. “For him there was only togetherness, listening to chamber music, which demanded greater responsibility from us musicians. We had to be ready to search through the musical labyrinth together.”
Christ also had amusing anecdotes at hand - for example, on a tour of Japan, Abbado steered him into a sports hall to play table tennis with him for hours. A passion of the conductor, which can also be pursued at Ludwigkirchplatz.
First published at Tagesspiegel, June 27, 2023
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