Chicago Symphony review — at 82, Riccardo Muti has never been better
– Richard Morrison | January 12, 2024
The orchestra is on tour with its venerable director and sounds superb — but why aren’t they coming to the UK, wonders Richard Morrison
Now 82 and with an astonishing 550 concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under his belt, Riccardo Muti can still galvanise musicians as few others ever will. Opening the CSO’s 14-concert European tour (which doesn’t include the UK for what’s diplomatically described as “logistical reasons”) at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Italian conductor offered the European premiere of a new Philip Glass piece, a beautifully spacious interpretation of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony (gracefully rebuffing those who think being Italian means driving very fast and gesticulating wildly), and a performance of Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony that grew more and more terrifying as it powered towards those percussion-driven last pages. Finally, in an encore paying homage to Puccini in his centenary year, he coaxed a wonderfully impassioned account of the intermezzo from Manon Lescaut, with sublime solos from principal cello and viola.
As always with Muti, the intensity was underpinned by a meticulous attention to detail, and especially blend. Just one tiny but telling example: I have never heard the quartet of horns and bassoons articulate their little fanfares in the Mendelssohn third movement with such clarity and perfect balance. Nor the violin lines shine so cleanly and lyrically in the first movement. Yet those same violins sounded properly raw in the ferocious thickets of Prokofiev. It suddenly seemed like a different orchestra.
And the new Glass? Well, mostly a rewind of the old Glass — except that the ten- minute piece, called The Triumph of the Octagon and inspired by the octagonal towers of a 13th-century Italian castle, did grow a little in interest and complexity after its soporific opening arpeggios. All credit to Muti for still premiering new stuff, but the only triumph here was in the title.
After 13 years as the CSO’s music director he has now been appointed “music director emeritus for life” — a continuing association that buys the orchestra some time to find a worthy successor. I gather the estimable Jakub Hrusa (soon to be music director of the Royal Opera) is a leading contender, with the dread name of Christian Thielemann also whispered.
Meanwhile, good news for Muti’s British fans. He is back in London in October to conduct the Verdi Requiem — the work that, more than any other, made his name half a century ago.
Richard Morrison, The Times, January 12, 2024
Photo: Todd Rosenberg Photography/Chicago Symphony Orchestra

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