Riccardo Muti

Conductor Riccardo Muti has been regarded as the <a href="spotify:artist:4xpgBZSojKNEQqQHXrwSXA">Toscanini</a> of the present day. Not just a <a href="spotify:artist:4xpgBZSojKNEQqQHXrwSXA">Toscanini</a>-style taskmaster who preaches fidelity to the score and presides over intense, hard-driven performances, Muti insists on beautiful tone as well as disciplined ensemble, capitalizing on a youthful (even in old age) Italian glamour. In 2025, Muti led the <a href="spotify:artist:003f4bk13c6Q3gAUXv7dGJ">Vienna Philharmonic</a>'s New Year's Concert for the seventh time. The release of the recording of that concert continued a remarkable recording career that dates back well into the LP era.

Muti was born in Naples on July 28, 1941. He initially learned piano and violin under his father, a physician. He attended the Verdi Conservatory in Milan, studying composition with <a href="spotify:artist:4M2EbzIsDXswrqt0nyiUBn">Bruno Bettinelli</a> and conducting with <a href="spotify:artist:1cJYZCqOPzIhYf3VekKtGW">Antonino Votto</a>. Muti won the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition in 1967, leading to his professional debut with the RAI Orchestra in 1968. That year, he became the principal conductor of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino; he held this post until 1980. In 1973, he became the principal conductor of London's <a href="spotify:artist:11vpC3XmFb1LIP2ugl96lZ">New Philharmonia</a>, a post he retained until 1982. Longtime <a href="spotify:artist:6tdexW8bZTG8NgOFUCYQn1">Philadelphia Orchestra</a> music director <a href="spotify:artist:3naY4Tq98GRh9K8xOsINyv">Eugene Ormandy</a> effectively selected Muti as his successor in 1980. His tenure in <a href="spotify:artist:6tdexW8bZTG8NgOFUCYQn1">Philadelphia</a> was marked by cool relations with the orchestra and the press, as he tightened the orchestra's ensemble while retaining its tonal warmth. He made major changes in programming practices, offering concert operas and commissioning works by such tough modernists as <a href="spotify:artist:5M1ZBrPeHjV8y3qFKnq7hO">Berio</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:0RkeeCvii56vYCER2jY5IH">Davidovsky</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5bFWsYW2sJRphG2q0kLhWI">Kirchner</a>, as well as more iconoclastic Americans such as <a href="spotify:artist:0Uj2XBKJsuZZsf5xSEPfmS">Bolcom</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4vcYbZ99sbqJHZWEsONSrb">Rouse</a>. An early Muti recording was a 1980 release of short operas by Mascagni and Leoncavallo, featuring tenor <a href="spotify:artist:1ahGKezyX9Rl7GuEF2tc15">José Carreras</a>.

Muti's heart remained with opera, and in 1986, he agreed to become the music director of Teatro alla Scala (and principal conductor of the La Scala Philharmonic the following year). Muti left Philadelphia in 1992, rarely to return. In opera, Muti has tended to focus on Italian repertory, using critical editions of scores and discouraging singers from indulging in traditional interpolations. Larger and more Italian-style controversy, indeed, awaited Muti in La Scala, where he clashed artistically with general manager <a href="spotify:artist:4P8HprbpkA3APFujDqwiBi">Carlo Fontana</a>, succeeded in having <a href="spotify:artist:4P8HprbpkA3APFujDqwiBi">Fontana</a> dismissed in favor of his own choice, but then faced a rebellion from the players. In 2004, Muti founded the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini and continues to serve as its music director. He resigned his post at La Scala in April of 2005 but has remained immensely influential in opera through his close association with the Salzburg Festival, where he has conducted a large number of operatic performances. Muti served as the artistic director of Salzburg's Whitsun Festival from 2007 until 2012, where he led the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini in concert, as well as productions of lesser-known 18th century Italian operas.

In 2010, Muti became the music director of the <a href="spotify:artist:6TD08jYeuN128P2MZTbc8E">Chicago Symphony Orchestra</a>. Controversy surrounded an appointment with the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, as he was improperly announced as the next music director beginning in 2010. Though he never held the official title, he did take on a similar, untitled role. During a 2011 performance of <a href="spotify:artist:1JOQXgYdQV2yfrhewqx96o">Verdi</a>'s Nabucco, Muti led not only the chorus but also the audience in a rendition of "Va pensiero," a chorus from the opera (and something of an Italian national hymn), in a protest against arts budget cuts by the government of prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. In Chicago, Muti ingratiated himself with the city's sports-mad populace by donning a Chicago Blackhawks jersey during the team's 2013 championship run. In 2021 he was heard leading the <a href="spotify:artist:74gWOpgM97HU3Mn8A8d0Vm">Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:536pGG9V0mbcKOSgw37g4m">Chorus</a> in a performance of <a href="spotify:artist:1JOQXgYdQV2yfrhewqx96o">Verdi</a>'s Requiem, and the <a href="spotify:artist:6TD08jYeuN128P2MZTbc8E">Chicago Symphony</a> announced the conclusion of Muti's directorship in 2023. He is married to festival director Maria Cristina Mazzavillani, and the couple has three children. Muti has remained a popular guest conductor internationally, and in 2025, he returned for his seventh turn with the baton at the <a href="spotify:artist:003f4bk13c6Q3gAUXv7dGJ">Vienna Philharmonic</a>'s New Year's Concert. By the mid-2020s, Muti's catalog comprised well over 300 releases; the year 2001 alone saw 14 of them. Muti's repertory is vast, including almost standards of opera and orchestral music; he perhaps conducts contemporary music less than some of his peers, but he has led performances and recordings of works by such contemporary composers as <a href="spotify:artist:69lxxQvsfAIoQbB20bEPFC">Philip Glass</a>. ~ James Manheim & James Reel, Rovi