Standing alone among conductors of his generation, Riccardo Muti has watched the world change around him. He can’t stand it.
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at the Chicago Tribune.Conductor Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Brahms' Symphony No. 1 at Symphony Center on May 4, 2017.
“He once told us a story about a tenor who worked and worked to get the diminuendo in his first-act aria in ‘Aïda’ really soft. But in the performance, the audience booed him, because it sounded like he had a weak high note,” remembers principal horn David Cooper. “The tenor comes out with a score and says, ‘Look! This is what Verdi wrote!’ An audience member looks at the score — you know, pretends he can read music. Then, he looks back at the tenor and says, ‘Well, Verdi was wrong.
Conductor Riccardo Muti and Chicago Symphony Orchestra play Pritzker Pavillion at Millennium Park in Chicago on Sept. 19, 2010. The Prudential building and the Aon Center added messages in their windows. As cool as Muti is hotheaded, CSO Association president Jeff Alexander, who succeeded Rutter in 2015, doesn’t let on to any such turmoil.
“We come back to do the same thing, and it’s better. I don’t want to say that it’s calculated, but he knows exactly the buttons to push at the exact time,” says concertmaster Robert Chen. That devotion was earned off the podium as well as on. Principal trombonist Jay Friedman has fond memories of Muti leading yearly rehearsals with the Symphony of Oak Park River Forest, the suburban community orchestra he directs, “out of the goodness of his heart.” And Muti hand-picked Max Raimi to write a CSO commission after being impressed by the violist’s arranging skills during a domestic tour.
The tenure process unfolds differently at different orchestras. At the CSO, after the candidate’s two-year probationary period, the music director may consult with musicians as a guide, but he is ultimately vested with the sole authority to grant or deny tenure.
“ is probably the most incredible horn player I have ever heard,” that musician wrote to the Tribune. “While his time here is short-lived, I will always appreciate the inspiration he has left with many of us.”that Muti first stood before the CSO to conduct “Pictures from an Exhibition,” and he is back in Orchestra Hall to rehearse the suite again.
He keeps the bit going, just enough to play it for laughs. Only those who know him well know that he is deathly serious. And livid.
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