Rome, January 20 - Tributes flowed Monday for world-renowned conductor Claudio Abbado, whose long career in such cities as Milan, London, Vienna, Chicago and Berlin was remembered along with his devotion to music and Italian culture.

"I am deeply saddened by the loss of a great musician who, for many decades, has marked the history of conducting and musical interpretation in international institutions," conductor Riccardo Muti said after the death of Abbado, 80, Monday in Bologna. "His disappearance will strongly impoverish the world of music and art," added Muti, music director with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Abbado had conducted many of the world's leading orchestras over a long career, and had been lauded for combining musical sensitivity and imaginative programming with an eye for neglected works and was equally at home in the opera pit and on the concert podium.

He also left his mark in recording, combining a repertoire of contemporary music as well as from the Classical and Romantic periods.

Abbado, an intensely private man, had been treated for stomach cancer in 2000, which he fought with courage and grace, friends said. Illness in 2010 forced him to cancel several concerts scheduled at La Scala in Milan.

President Giorgio Napolitano said that the death of Abbado "is a source of strong emotion and pain for me personally, and a profound loss for Italy and for (our) culture". Last August, Napolitano appointed Abbado as a Senator for life, a position honouring Italians who have shown extraordinary scientific, social or artistic merit. "From today, Italy is poorer," said Riccardo Chailly, named as principal conductor for La Scala beginning next year, and as musical director effective in 2017.

"(His death) leaves a great void in the history of musical interpretation," added Chailly, who described Abbado as a mentor.

"For we Italians, Claudio has been a landmark...capable of representing the best of our tradition".

Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera of London, recalled Abbado as "a giant" with "a unique spirit, a visionary".

And in tribute to Abbado, Francesco Bianchi of Florence's Maggio Musicale opera festival announced that its performance of Verdi's Nabucco, opening Tuesday night, would be dedicated to the legendary conductor.

Abbado, who was born into a musical family in Milan in 1933, began his long and illustrious career in the 1950s.

By 1968, he began a long association as music director at the La Scala opera house in Milan where he remained until 1986. In 1987, he was named General Music Director of the City of Vienna and was elected by the members of the Berlin Philharmonic as Principal Conductor and fifth Artistic Director in 1989.

He also worked as principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and, from 1989 to 2002, principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Abbado won two Grammy awards and in April 2012, he was voted into the Gramaphone Hall of Fame.

"His music has always been synonymous with freedom, a feeling that (came) with the simplicity and strength of the notes," Justice Minister Annamaria Cancelleri said in a statement.

"This is the universal value of the music of Claudio Abbado, a man who has always managed to combine the sublime beauty of art with a strong sense of civil rights," she added.

In a message posted on Abbado's website, his family said it would soon announce funeral information.

"Claudio is with all of us," said the family in its message.

"Now, he has departed on the mysterious journey".

Abbado, once described as a gentle man, had also taken an active role in promoting young musical talent by founding new orchestras, like the European Youth Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Mozart Orchestra.

The conductor was also known for establishing an annual international composers competition in Vienna in 1991, and after becoming Artistic Director of the Salzburg Easter Festival in 1994, enriched the event by promoting prizes for musical composition as well as figurative arts and literature.

Among the numerous awards and honors that have been bestowed at home and abroad are the Standard Opera Award for his Boris Godunov at Covent Garden, the Légion d'honneur from the French Ministry of Culture and the highest civilian honour of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Bundesverdienstkreuz.

He has also been awarded the Gran Croce, the highest honor in Italy.

Abbado as well received honorary degrees from the universities of Cambridge, Aberdeen and Ferrara. In 1994, he was awarded the international Ernst-von-Siemens music prize, Germany's most prestigious music award.