“The renowned conductor Riccardo Chailly got an early break when, as a very young man, he was hired as Claudio Abbado’s assistant at La Scala in Milan,” writes Michael Cooper in Thursday’s (8/13) New York Times. “Now Mr. Chailly, 62, is following in the footsteps of Mr. Abbado, who died in 2014, in more ways than one: he became principal conductor at La Scala this year, and on Thursday he was named music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, which Mr. Abbado revived and led for 11 years….. Mr. Chailly, who is also the music director of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, will start at the Lucerne festival next summer, with a performance of Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 8 on Aug. 12. His contract, which is for five years, calls for him to conduct the festival orchestra in four or five concerts a year during the summer festival. Mr. Chailly said that he hoped to ‘develop the musical profile of the orchestra and of the festival, both in Switzerland and worldwide, as they deserve.’ ”
Posted August 13, 2015
