The Conductors: from Toscanini to Abbado

Great conductors

Franco Faccio, an acquaintance of both Arrigo Boito and the Countess Maffei, directed the orchestra from 1871 to 1889. Tullio Serafin, who had played viola under Toscanini at La Scala, had two stints in charge (1909–1914, 1917–1918). Gino Marinuzzi, music director from 1914 to 1917, and also a notable composer, was widely regarded as one of the supreme conductors of his day.

Few would omit Victor de Sabata, Toscanini’s immediate successor (1930 to 1953), from their personal lists of the greatest La Scala conductors through the ages. So total was his influence that the opera house named him “sovrintendente-artistico”, a title that incorporates the usual designation for the powerful general directors of Italian theatres.

On Toscanini’s recommendation, de Sabata took on Carlo Maria Giulini as his assistant. Giulini soon became one of the most popular figures in the city for his depth of interpretation but also for his austere, elegant and reserved figure.

The career of Guido Cantelli, aged 36, was tragically cut short in a fatal plane crash in 1956. He had been appointed music director just a week before.

Gianandrea Gavazzeni, music director from 1965 to 1968, was a regular presence on the podium until the mid-1990s imposing himself among the most significant figures of Italian musical culture with his ability to combine tradition with the rediscovery of the repertoire of the early nineteenth century and the proposal of premieres.

Claudio Abbado’s left hand (1968–1986)

Claudio Abbado’s conducting technique was revered by critics and musicians alike. “Rarely did he beat time; rather he sculpted and shapeed the music, like a potter at his wheel,” explained the Daily Telegraph. His technique "perfectly balanced intellect and emotion," according to the Financial Times. “I would like, above all, to recall the technique of his left hand," wrote Riccardo Chailly in the Corriere della Sera following Abbado’s death.

Abbado the activist

Alongside the socially-engaged superintendents Paolo Grassi and Carlo Maria Badini, Abbado, a commited anti-fascist, strove to open up La Scala to the masses. He conducted concerts for factory workers, the management was cajoled into lowering ticket prices for young people and there were free film showings of opera productions.

In 2008, superintendent Stéphane Lissner attempted to schedule a concert with Abbado for the first time in 20 years. The conductor said he would conduct only if the City Council committed to planting 90,000 trees.

The authorities agreed, and in the end Abbado returned with Mahler’s Symphony no.6 in 2012. Thousands gathered outside in Piazza della Scala.

Abbado launches the Filarmonica

Abbado’s vast operatic repertoire stretched from Verdi to Nono, Rossini to Berg and Donizetti to Debussy. Yet he believed La Scala’s orchestra should also perform symphonic repertoire to the same standard. Thus, in 1982, he launched the Filarmonica della Scala -- an ensemble comprising La Scala’s regular players, which runs a separate symphonic season and is managed by a self-governing organisation.