To mark 50 years together, Muti tours with the Vienna Philharmonic in Italy

In 2021, Riccardo Muti, Zell Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, celebrates 50 years of conducting the Vienna Philharmonic as well as his 80th birthday on July 28, 2021. The Vienna Philharmonic, with whom Muti has had a long and fruitful relationship since his conducting debut with the orchestra in 1971, kicked off the festivities with a three-concert tour this spring of Muti’s native Italy. The celebration will continue this summer at the Salzburg Festival when he will conduct the orchestra in performances of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. 

The tour traveled to three cities that have been Muti’s musical homes throughout his illustrious career, beginning on May 9 at the beautiful Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, the city he now calls home (and where he regularly hosts his Italian Opera Academy and conducts the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra).

The tour continued the next day at Florence’s Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where Muti was music director from 1968 to 1980, and concluded on May 10 at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, where Muti was music director from 1986 to 2005. “The exceptional quality of the [Vienna Philharmonic’s performance] was only enhanced by the presence of Maestro, entering the realm of magical,” wrote Il Sole 24 Ore’s Carla Moreni, who attended the concert in Milan. “The concert is a symbol of creation and invention. Here the dialogue is continuous in a game of surprises inside a fixed and flawless form.” 

In a year that has been notably deprived of live musical performances, the arrival of Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic in each of these locations was the cause of great excitement and heartfelt appreciation for these concerts as symbolic returns to cultural life. “Only Muti can restart the music,” read the headlines in the publication Libero.

Keeping culture alive has been a focus of Maestro Muti’s throughout the pandemic. On June 21, 2020, Muti held the distinguished honor of resuming the performance of live orchestral music in Italy by conducting the opening concert of the Ravenna Festival with his Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra. Their concertizing continued with appearances throughout Italy and via streamed concerts in the following months.  

Paying constant attention to ever-changing safety precautions and regulations, Muti has been able to travel to perform with the Vienna Philharmonic in the past year: first in June 2020 for concerts at the Musikverein for a limited, invitation-only audience, then at the 100th season of the Salzburg Festival and for the 2021 New Year’s Concert at the Musikverein. Muti holds the distinction of being invited six times to conduct this renowned concert.

While rehearsing in Vienna for the Italian tour, Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic received the prestigious audience award the Romy Prize for their 2021 New Year’s Concert in the TV Moment of the Year category. Although this year’s event was performed before an empty hall, it was broadcast in over 90 countries and followed by millions of radio and television viewers around the globe, making it the largest worldwide event in classical music.

Daniel Froschauer, chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic, stated, “The Romy award is a confirmation that, despite the pandemic, we were successful in sending with the music of the New Year’s Concert a message of hope to the world and provide inspiration for our audience. The gratitude of listeners and viewers from around the world is our greatest reward, especially after enduring such difficult times. We are thankful for all of the participants who helped make the concert broadcast possible.” 

Muti’s selections for the Italian tour consisted of Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 and Brahms’ Symphony No. 2. “The selected masterpieces from the German Romantic era demonstrate the close artistic partnership between him and the Vienna Philharmonic,” Froschauer said. “I would like to specifically mention Brahms’ Second Symphony, which the Vienna Philharmonic premiered, and which Riccardo Muti has often conducted with our orchestra.”  

The Vienna Philharmonic has not performed for live audiences since last November due to health and safety precautions, so the city of Ravenna was particularly honored that they chose to begin the tour at the Teatro Alighieri. “They chose to return to our city [where they have performed on 11 occasions with Muti] and for this we must once again thank Riccardo Muti,” said Patritzia Luppa in La Cronaca di Ravenna.

“Bentornata Musica!” (“Welcome back music!”) read Giovanni Gavazzeni’s article in Il Giornale after the tour’s first performance in Ravenna. He went on to describe the performances of the Mendelssohn as “magical,” the Schumann as “sonorous” and the encore, Johann Strauss Jr.’s Kaiserwalzer as an unexpected treat “enriched with a unique bite.”  

After Muti and the Vienna Phil continued on to Florence, Giuseppe Rossi in La Nazione di Firenze noted that “[The] three romantic masterpieces lent themselves to illustrate the unparalleled stylistic authenticity that the Philharmonic is able to express in this repertoire ... and the surprising interpretative discoveries [of] Muti.” In addition to singing the praises of the “transparency” of the Mendelssohn and the “depth and dramatic tension” of the Schumann, Rossi described the Brahms’ Second Symphony as “truly unforgettable … a poignant tenderness that reaches even the triumphant end of the Finale.” 

In Florence, audience members were deeply touched by this first appearance of Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic together at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and for the first-hand experience of “the special alchemy that unites them” (La Nazione di Firenze).  

The tour concluded in Milan. There the headlines of Libero declared, “The Maestro enchanted the audience” in this “unforgettable performance in Milan, which was the cradle of his immense genius.” 

A remarkable coincidence of this performance was that it was 75 years to the day of Toscanini’s concert marking the reopening of La Scala after World War II. Muti takes great pride in his link to the famous conductor as a former student of Antonino Votto, who was Toscanini’s principal assistant at La Scala, representing a powerful link among the three conductors.  

At the end of the concert, the Vienna Philharmonic and Muti were met with ovations and applause. Muti turned to the audience to say, “It is a moving experience after a year of streaming to make music for you. This music is ours … my mission.” 

The concert at La Scala was recorded and is to be broadcast by RAI Italia in close cooperation with the European Broadcast Union. The concert will be broadcast on July 28, Maestro Muti’s birthday.