Great conductor Claudio Abbado laid to rest in his 'magical place'

10 November 2014, 17:18

Maestro Abbado's family have moved his body to the Swiss mountains, the scene of some of his finest concert performances.

Claudio Abbado's body has been removed from a grave at his holiday home in the Italian island of Sardinia and taken to a final resting place in Sils Maria, Engadin. 

Claudio Abbado obituary

The Italian conductor passed away in January 2014, aged 80, after a long illness. His family told Italian media that Sils Maria was "a magical place" for him, and that he had enjoyed some of his finest hours with the festival at nearby Lucerne.

The maestro made his debut at the Lucerne Festival in 1966, and had more recently conducted the festival's reformed orchestra for 11 consecutive seasons from 2003-2013. 

In 2014 the Lucerne Festival Orchestra played Schubert's Unfinished Symphony with an empty podium as a tribute to their late conductor.