Claudio Abbado was rather modest for a maestro

Claudio Abbado, the conductor and champion of classical music who died yesterday aged 80, was unusually modest for a maestro. He was nonetheless forthright in his belief that music could change hearts and minds — attracting some snobbery from peers by staging concerts for factory workers and in opposition to fascism. Abbado was unconcerned by the ruffled feathers of the concert set, as he once explained, of his music and of his politics, “I am for freedom. Everything that is not for freedom I protest.”