Muti conducts historic concerts far and wide | Chicago Symphony Orchestra (original) (raw)
Many critics likened Muti's interpretation of Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 to a religious experience.
© Marco Borrelli
The CSO’s Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti returns to conduct two weeks of subscription concerts this fall. His last performances in Chicago with the Orchestra were in September 2023, followed by two performances in New York at Carnegie Hall (Oct. 4 and 5). His most recent performance with the Orchestra was in Rome (Jan. 29), at the conclusion of a three-week tour across 11 cities in Europe. Since that time, Muti has been gracing podiums across the world, from Turin to Tokyo.
Muti conducted Verdi’s "Un ballo in maschera" at the Teatro Regio in Turin during Feb. 21- Mar. 3, 2024
© Andrea Macchia
February 21-March 3 | Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera in Turin
Muti conducted Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy. Muti is renowned for his interpretations of Verdi’s works, and these performances were no exception. The new production by Andrea de Rosa featured the orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Regio and Piero Pretti as Riccardo, Luca Micheletti as Renato, and Lidia Fridman as Amelia, Damiana Mizzi as Oscar and Alla Pozniak as Ulrica. Chicago audiences will recall with pleasure Muti concluding the 2021/22 Season with this dramatic tour de force.
“Muti’s interpretation exuded an expressive power that delicately balanced soft smiles amidst the shadows of dramatic passion, employing this contrast to sustain a palpable tension throughout.” —Bachtrack
March 24 | 80th Anniversary of the Fosse Ardeatine Massacre in Rome
On March 24, Muti conducted the Luigi Cherubini Orchestra in a special concert at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome marking the 80th anniversary of the Fosse Ardeatine Massacre. The program included Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony (No. 8) and American composer’s William Schuman’s Symphony No. 9 (Le fosse Ardeatine). When Muti conducted the latter work with the CSO in February 2019, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the tragedy, Italian President Sergio Mattarella sent a letter stating:
Yours is indeed an evocative and meaningful choice. The symphony, in fact, pays tribute to the victims of that heinous act of terror, while also honoring a composer of exceptional musical and human sensitivity and his artistic legacy.
April 17 & 20 | Aida in Tokyo
In April, Muti traveled to Japan to conduct two concert performances of Verdi’s Aida in the Main Hall of the Bunka Kaikan for the Tokyo Spring Festival. One of the concerts was streamed via Japan’s public media organization, NHK. Muti has been a frequent guest of the Tokyo Spring Festival, especially due to his multi-year collaboration between his Italian Opera Academy and the festival, which began in 2019. Muti concluded the CSO’s 2018/19 Season with notable concert performances of Aida, leading the New York Times to declare Muti “The King of Verdi.”
May 4-13| Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna
On May 7, Maestro Riccardo Muti had the honor to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic on the two-hundredth anniversary of the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, which took place on May 7, 1824. The Vienna Philharmonic celebrated the bicentennial anniversary with a total of four concerts, beginning May 5. “To the Vienna Philharmonic, it was self-evident that this anniversary be entrusted to Muti,” according to Daniel Froschauer, the Philharmonic’s board chair, “as no other conductor today is more grounded in Viennese classicism, [typified by] Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven.” The Philharmonic was joined by the Wiener Singverein and soloists included Julia Kleiter (soprano), Marianne Crebessa (alto), Michael Spyres (tenor) and Günther Groissböck (bass). The Musikverein was sold out for months in anticipation of these historic concerts.
“To the Vienna Philharmonic, it was self-evident that this anniversary be entrusted to Muti,” Daniel Froschauer, Board Chair of the Vienna Philharmonic
In commemoration of the bicentennial of the world premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony sections of the original manuscript were placed on view this summer, in the Eroica-Saal of the Theater Museum in the Palais Lobkowitz. In addition to this precious item on loan from Berlin, a copy of the first edition in the possession of the Vienna Philharmonic was on display as well as Maestro Muti’s personal copy of a rare facsimile edition of the score that documents the history of the composition’s reception.
Following his Vienna appearances, Muti conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in Berlin, Ravenna, Florence and Bari in works by Verdi, Falla, Brahms, Grieg, Dvořák, Respighi, Mozart and Schubert.
May 30-June 1 | Muti in Monaco
Days after his 83rd birthday, Muti directed the Bayerischen Rudfunks Orchestra and Chorus in three concerts in Monaco, performing Haydn’s Te Deum, Schubert’s Mass No. 2, and Richard Strauss’ Aus Italien. The latter is a work Muti conducted with the BRSO forty years ago in 1984. Muti also conducted the review during his debut residency with the CSO at the Ravinia Festival in 1973. They have played it many times together subsequently in Chicago and on tour.
The Teatro di Verona was packed for a special concert, led by Muti, honoring "The Practice of Opera Singing in Italy," placed on UNESCO’s prestigious Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2023.
Ennevi Foto
The Arena di Verona holds 20,000 spectators with its opera stage. In Ancient Roman times, it held 30,000.
Ennevi Foto
Muti stands with an orchestra and chorus totaling nearly 500 musicians at the La Grande Opera Italiana Patrimonio dell’Umanità performance at the Arena di Verona.
Ennevi Foto
The Arena di Verona is an ancient roman amphitheater built in 30 AD. It has been the sight of opera productions regularly since 1913.
Ennevi Foto
June 7 | La Grande Opera Italiana Patrimonio dell’Umanità in Verona
The Ministry of Culture celebrated Italian Opera with an extraordinary event broadcast worldwide by RAI at the Arena di Verona. It followed the Dec. 5, 2023 announcement when “The Practice of Opera Singing in Italy” was officially placed on UNESCO’s prestigious Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. To celebrate this honor, 160 orchestral musicians and 300 singers from ANFOLS (National Association of Opera-Symphonic Foundations) were led by Maestro Riccardo Muti, the de facto living champion of Italy’s musical legacy.
Opera’s “great masterpieces are our heritage, and we Italians have given them to the world,” the conductor, Riccardo Muti, said on Italy’s main national TV channel minutes before the event began.
In a single evening, at the largest open-air theater in the world, opera stars including Jonas Kaufmann, Juan Diego Flórez, Ludovic Tézier, Vittorio Grigolo, Luca Salsi, Eleonora Buratto, Francesco Meli and many other artists performed in this performance honoring the cultural legacy of Italian opera.
On June 28, Muti and the Cherubini Orchestra performed a special concert in Lucca, Giacomo Puccini’s hometown, honoring the beloved composer, who lived 1858-1924, on the occasion of the centennial of his death. Mondovisione televised the concert. Muti traveled with the Cherubini Orchestra to perform at the Musikverien and the Basilica of the Aquileia in Udine between this concert and the one in Verona.
Muti conducting the annual Roads of Friendship concert, this year at Teatro naturale della Cava in Lampedusa.
© Silvia Lelli
The Teatro naturale della cava is in an old quarry. Candles placed in whole in the rock add to the atmospher.
© Silvia Lelli
Muti conducting Sollima’s Stabat Mater for countertenor (Nicolò Balducci), cello (Giovanni Sollima), theremin (Lina Gervasi), chorus (Chorus of the Sienna Cathedral) and orchestra (Cherubini Orchestra).
© Silvia Lelli
July 7 & 9 | The Roads of Friendship in Ravenna and Lampedusa
July 7 and 9, Muti conducted his annual Roads of Friendship concerts — the first at its host city of Ravenna and the second in Lampedusa, a Mediterranean island that has been the gateway to Europe for migrants from Africa and the Middle East making the dangerous sea journey, hoping for a better future. However, many of the boats capsize or sink, leading to thousands of deaths each year. The concert, which included Schubert’s Tragic Fourth Symphony and contemporary composer Giovanni Sollima’s Stabat Mater for countertenor (Nicolò Balducci), cello (Giovanni Sollima), theremin (Lina Gervasi), chorus (Chorus of the Sienna Cathedral) and orchestra (Cherubini Orchestra). The concert in Lampedusa took place in an outdoor theater created in the remains of a quarry where a salvaged shipwreck is a symbol of loss and warning.
Muti conducted his first-ever performances of Bruckner's Eighth Symphony at the 2024 Salzburg Festival to widespread critical acclaim.
© Marco Borrelli
August 15, 17 & 18 | Bruckner in Salzburg
Muti returned to the Salzburg Festival to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in three sold-out performances (August 15, 17, and 18) of Anton Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony — and “A Highlight of the Festival” (Der Standard). The Salzburger Nachrichten declared “Muti build a cathedral for Bruckner” in these performances honored the composer’s bicentennial. Notably, these marked Muti’s first time conducting the symphony, which he prepared with great reverence for the composer, noting the significance of the occasion. “This memorable interpretation is characterized by deep seriousness, inherent in the greatness and grandeur of this music,” read Thomas Rauchenwald’s review. “A great maestro and an ingenious Bruckner conductor," read Kristen Liese of _Klassik-Begeistert; "_The decisive factor is, of course, the experience of the sound while maintaining tension throughout. And on this morning, it is so powerful that you hardly dare to breathe.”
“Every note touched by God” (Die Welt)
“A grand interpretation with depth, yet without any lecturing.” (Die Presse)
Muti advises a young conductor at the 2024 Tokyo Italian Opera Academy.
© Naoya Ikegami
September 3-16 | Italian Opera Academy in Tokyo
September 3-16, Muti returned to Tokyo to host a two-and-a-half-week intensive study of Verdi’s 1846 opera, Attila. This marked his third session of the Italian Opera Academy in Tokyo. Previous years’ programs in Tokyo have focused on Verdi’s _Un ballo in maschera, Macbeth _and Rigoletto
October 4 | Muti in Paris
Muti conducted Verdi’s Requiem with the Orchestra National de France, the Chœur de Radio France, and soloists Iwona Sobotka, Marie-Nicole Lemieux, Giovanni Sala, and Maharram Huseynov.
On the podium, the conductor is attentive to everything. . . . A Requiem where nothing is superfluous, that sounds with formidable precision, particularly in the great orchestral deluges, both fierce and tragic.
Before returning to Chicago, Muti will conduct three performances of Verdi’s Requiem with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Muti was music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1980 to 1992.