Riccardo Muti (2008).
Riccardo Muti,
Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (born
July 28, 1941) is an Italian
conductor.
In May 2008 he was appointed the 10th music director of the
Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, effective with the 2010-11 season.
Biography
Muti was
born in Naples
, Italy,
where his father was a doctor and an amateur singer; his mother was
a professional singer. Muti studied piano in Naples at the
Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella under Vincenzo Vitale.
He was
subsequently awarded a diploma in Composition and Conducting by the
Conservatory "Giuseppe Verdi", Milan
, where he
studied with the composer Bruno
Bettinelli and the conductor Antonino
Votto. He has also studied composition with
Nino Rota, whom he considers a mentor. He was
unanimously awarded first place by the jury of the "
Guido Cantelli" competition for conductors in
Milan in 1967. From 1968 to 1980, Muti served as principal director
and music director of the
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Since 1971, he has been a frequent conductor of operas and concerts
at the
Salzburg Festival, where he
is particularly known for his Mozart opera performances.
From 1972,
Muti regularly conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in London
. In
1974, he was appointed the orchestra's principal conductor to
succeed
Otto Klemperer.
In 1987, Muti was appointed principal conductor of the Scala
Philharmonic Orchestra, with which in 1988 he received the Viotti
d'Oro and with which he went on tour in Italy and in Europe. In
1991, he announced his resignation from the Philadelphia Orchestra
at the end of the 1991-1992 season.
Muti has been a regular guest of the
Berlin Philharmonic and the
Vienna Philharmonic. In 1996, Muti
conducted the latter at the closing of the Viennese Festival Week
in a tour of the Far East to Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Germany, and
the
Vienna New Year's
Concert in 1993, 1997, 2000 and 2004.
Apart from
La
Scala
, Muti has conducted operatic performances with the
Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as productions in Munich
, at the
Vienna State
Opera
(starting with Aida in 1973, followed by
La forza del destino in 1974, Rigoletto in 1983,
Così fan tutte in 1994, Don Giovanni in 1999,
Le nozze di Figaro in 2001), in London, and at the
Ravenna Festival.
Muti is a regular guest conductor at the Vienna Staatsoper where he
continues to conduct Mozart operas such as
Le nozze di
Figaro and
Così fan tutte. He is to return to this
opera house in 2008 with
Così fan tutte.
A special relationship connects Muti with the
Salzburg Festival, where the conductor
debuted in 1971 with Donizetti's
Don
Pasquale. In the following years Muti has been constantly
present at the festival, conducting both concerts with the Vienna
Philharmonic Orchestra and opera productions, such as
Così fan
tutte in 1983 and
Die Zauberflöte in 2005 and 2006.
Muti also owns a residence close to Salzburg.
From 2007 on, Muti is the principal conductor at Salzburg's
Pentecost Festival. He conducts opera productions and
concerts with his
Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra.
In the USA, from 1980 to 1992, Muti was music director of the
Philadelphia Orchestra, which he led on numerous international
tours. In 1979, he was appointed its music director and, in 1992,
conductor laureate. Muti stated that his approach was to remain
faithful to the intent of the composer. This meant a change from
applying the lush "Philadelphia Sound," created by his predecessors
Eugene Ormandy and
Leopold Stokowski, to all repertoire;
however, many of his recordings with that orchestra largely seem to
do away with its hallmark sound, even in the works of such
composers as Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and other high romantics. His
sonic changes to the orchestra remain controversial. Some felt he
turned it into a generic-sounding institution with a lean sound
much favored by modern recording engineers. Others believe Muti
uncovered the true intention of the works, which had been covered
in a silky sheen by Muti's predecessor. Since his departure from
Philadelphia, he has made very few guest conducting appearances
with the Philadelphia Orchestra, most recently in 2005.
Muti has been a regular and popular guest conductor with the
New York Philharmonic. The
orchestra's musicians have been reported as being interested in
Muti as their next music director, both towards the end of the
tenures of
Kurt Masur and
Lorin Maazel, but Muti had stated that he had
no wish to take on the position with the orchestra. On May 5, 2008,
Muti was named the next music director of the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO),
effective with the 2010-2011 season, with an initial contract of 5
years. Muti is scheduled to conduct a minimum of 10 weeks of CSO
subscription concerts each season, in addition to domestic and
international tours.
He made his CSO debut at the Ravinia
Festival
in
1973. In August 2009, Muti was named the next music director
of the
Teatro dell'Opera di
Roma, effective December 2010.On 21 June 2010, Ljubljana will
celebrate
Carlos Kleiber's 80th
Birthday with VPO and Muti.
Riccardo Muti is married to Cristina Mazzavillani, who is the
founder and director of the
Ravenna
Festival. They have three children, two sons and a
daughter.
La Scala controversy
In 2003, there were reports of artistic and programming conflicts
at La Scala between musical director and principal conductor Muti
and general manager Carlo Fontana. Muti did not attend the press
conference that announced the new 2003 season. The appointment in
2003 of Mauro Meli as La Scala's artistic director was intended to
calm the conflict between Fontana and Muti.
On 24 February 2005, the La Scala governors dismissed Fontana as
general manager and named Meli as his successor. The musicians
sided with Fontana against Muti at this point in the dispute, and
on 13 March, Muti stated that he would refuse to conduct the La
Scala orchestra from that point on. On March 16, 2005, the
orchestra and staff of La Scala voted overwhelmingly against Muti
in a motion of no-confidence. Muti was forced to cancel a concert
prior to the vote, and some other productions were disrupted at the
theater because of continuing rifts with Fontana's supporters. On
April 2, he resigned from La Scala, citing "hostility" from staff
members.
Repertoire and recordings
With Philadelphia, his recordings include the first Beethoven
Symphony Cycle made for compact disc, the symphonies of
Johannes Brahms and
Alexander Scriabin, selected works of
Tchaikovsky and
Sergei Prokofiev, as well as less-known
works of composers such as
Giacomo
Puccini and
Ferruccio
Busoni.
Muti is considered one of the world's greatest conductors of the
operas of
Giuseppe Verdi. He also led
a series of annual performances of opera in concerts including the
works of
Verdi,
Puccini,
Mozart, and
Wagner. In 1992, Muti conducted performances
of
Ruggero Leoncavallo's
Pagliacci with
Luciano Pavarotti. A recording was also
made of these performances.
At La Scala, Muti was noted for exploring lesser-known works of the
Classical- and early
Romantic-era repertory such as
Lodoiska by
Luigi Cherubini
and
La Vestale by
Gaspare Spontini.
Honors
References
External links
on October 13, 2003.
since 1981.
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search