Recently, moreover, a young Finnish maestro, Esa-Pekka Salonen made a remark hitherto almost as unthinkable as Mr Abbado's.

ECONOMIST: Why Berlin��s musicians don��t need a maestro

His recording, made in Cardiff in 1985, has outsold Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado and all other contenders.

ECONOMIST: Gilbert Kaplan

The blocking of the chorus into a tight huddle for "Va pensiero" is Mr. Abbado's sole wholly successful directorial idea.

WSJ: Review: Temple of Gloom | 'Nabucco' at London's Royal Opera House

The most illuminating chapter is perhaps the final one, about the relationship between Claudio Abbado and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

ECONOMIST: Conjurors

Famously reticent, Mr Abbado gives little away himself, but his players say it all for him a fine confirmation of his gifts as a conductor.

ECONOMIST: Conjurors

On the positive side, since he took over in 1989 Mr Abbado has widened the Berliners' repertoire to include modern composers such as Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio and Alfred Schnittke that von Karajan shunned.

ECONOMIST: Why Berlin��s musicians don��t need a maestro

Hand gestures, whether the baton-traced polygons of the textbooks or the mysterious finger-flickerings of Mr Gergiev and Mr Abbado, are construed less as specific directions than as signs of a kind of ultra-responsive listening, a listening which feeds back into how the players hear each other.

ECONOMIST: Conjurors