Achieving that ideal was no simple task with orchestras of long traditions and routines, though Abbado remade the Philharmonic in his image, and lastingly so. Striving to fulfill that promise led him not only to embrace the energy of youth orchestras, but also to support and found ensembles of like mind: the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Orchestra Mozart. The most extravagant was the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, a coterie of colleagues and admirers with whom he gave critically sanctified summer performances from 2003 until just before his death. The breadth is extraordinary — what other conductor was as adept as Abbado in Rossini as well as in Webern and Ligeti? — yet it still excludes records he made for EMI, RCA and Sony, as well as most of his vaunted Mahler from Lucerne.

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Persons: Abbado, Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Schell, “, ”, Karajan, Orchestra Mozart, Rossini, Webern, Ligeti, Mahler Organizations: Berlin Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Philips, Universal Music Group, EMI, RCA, Sony Locations: Lucerne