MUSIC

Claudio Abbado was chosen Sunday as the new conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Anke Martiny, head of the West Berlin Culture Department, announced. He takes the place of Herbert von Karajan, who died July 16. Abbado, 56, an Italian, is musical director of the Vienna opera and general music director in Vienna. A native of Milan, Abbado in 1958 won the Serge Koussevitzky conducting prize at the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts and in 1963 the Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting prize. In 1966, he began a long association with the London Symphony Orchestra, directing it regularly before he succeeded Andre Previn as principal conductor in 1979. Abbado is well known in the United States for his long association with the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras.