Claudio Abbado, generally considered as one of the world's most profoundly insightful conductors, has had his serious health problems in recent years. Which makes the news that the 80-year-old maestro has pulled out of the upcoming Japanese tour with his Lucerne orchestra rather worrying.
Abbado isn't a regular canceler--especially not of a tour that was and is important to an orchestra he, himself, built. So, the fact that Abbado didn't feel he could handle the rigors of Japan indicates a serious setback. And one of the concerts was scheduled for the inflatable hall in Matsushima, constructed in memory of the victims of a 2011 earthquake.
We wish Abbado well, of course. The man was really very ill once before, and to have pulled himself back to health with such a busy schedule was remarkable. To have created two orchestra despite all of that, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Orchestra Mozart Bologna, is almost superhuman.
Claudio Abbado is due to join his Bologna band from November. There will follow another arduous tour, taking in Bologna, Vienna, Dortmund, London and Rome. Hopes will be high among those have have fought for a ticket that the main attraction makes it.
