More than any of the maestros who cut their teeth in the late 1950s and 1960s Claudio Abbado deserves to be hailed as a true all-rounder. One of the most respected conductors of his generation and the heir to Karajan at the Berlin Phil, he coupled the precision and drive of a Toscanini with the fluidity and grand designs of a Furtwängler. Like those two conductors (and also de Sabata who he cited as an influence), Abbado was always at home in the hurly burly of the opera house – and that despite his notorious shyness. He became principal conductor at La Scala in 1969, a key artistic relationship that he developed over the next 16 years, and unlike some Italian maestros proved keen to embrace operatic repertoire from France, Germany and Russia.

Claudio Abbado. Photo © Peter Fischli/Lucerne Festival

The 60CD Abbado Opera Edition brings together his complete opera recordings on Deutsche Grammophon and Decca over four decades including 20 complete operas with bonus aria collections and a disc of overtures, plus a fine recital with a young Anna Netrebko as well as Kaufmann’s award-winning Wagner album. You...