Bravo, Maestro! A look back at the Muti era

Riccardo Muti, the 10th music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, leaves a lasting impact on the ensemble, and the Chicago and world communities in general. Here’s a look back at his myriad accomplishments during his long and acclaimed association with the Orchestra.

June 2023 | Riccardo Muti will conclude the season, his last as music director, with Schubert’s Ninth Symphony, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis and a final Concert for Chicago in Millennium Park on June 27.

May 2023 | In his penultimate residency, Maestro Muti conducts the CSO in the world premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s Transfigure to Grace in concerts May 11-16. He also leads a mostly Mozart program May 18-23 and then reprises Respighi’s Pines of Rome, which has become a signature work for Muti and the CSO, in concerts May 25-27.

Winter 2023 | After a pandemic hiatus, Muti and the CSO resume their touring activities with a seven-city, eight-concert tour of North America and additional concerts in Kansas City and Florida.

Sept. 27, 2022 | This milestone concert marks Maestro Muti’s 500th performance with the CSO since making his podium debut with the Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival in 1973. Fittingly, Pictures is once again on the program, as it was in 1973 at Ravinia.

June 27, 2023 | Muti and the CSO close the season in Millennium Park with a free Concert for Chicago featuring Shostakovich’s Festive Overture and Tchaikovsky’s unabashedly autobiographical Symphony No. 4.

June 23, 25 and 28 | Continuing his traversal of Verdi’s operas, Riccardo Muti leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in three concert performances in Un ballo in maschera.

Spring 2022 | Muti and the CSO perform the world premieres of CSO commissions by former and current Mead Composers-in-Residence: Missy Mazzoli’s Orpheus Undone and Jessie Montgomery’s Hymn for Everyone.

February 2022 | Contemporary works figure prominently in Riccardo Muti’s concerts in 2022, including the CSO’s first performances of Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 11. For the occasion, Glass joins Muti and the CSO onstage after the work’s performance on Feb. 19. In the program book, the Baltimore-born Glass described the Windy City as “one of his artistic homes” and recalled that he used to attend CSO concerts while studying at the University of Chicago. “It’s a great privilege for any composer to have their work performed by this world-class ensemble, doubly so with the delight of having Maestro Riccardo Muti conducting.”

A week later, Maestro Muti returns to a work that has become a calling card for him and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, leading four sold-out concerts of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Reprising a work that had opened the 2014-15 season to a huge success, Muti expands his legacy of showcasing choral and operatic masterworks during his tenure as CSO music director. The first concert followed the horrifying news of the Ukrainian invasion, and so Muti dedicated the performance of the work, and its explicit message of universal kinship, to the people of Ukraine and other victims of violence worldwide: “We make music that means joy and peace. But we will think in this moment that joy without peace cannot exist.”

January 2022 | With touring plans postponed, Muti conducts a residency in January with two performances in community venues: Chodl Auditorium at Morton East High School in Cicero and the Apostolic Church of God in the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side.

September 2021 | For the first time in nearly two years, Muti returns to Chicago, after the pandemic hiatus, for an emotional reunion with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

June 22, 2021 | Maestro Muti appoints Hilary Hahn as the CSO’s first artist-in-residence for a two-year term beginning with the 2021-22 season. 

April 20, 2021 | Muti appoints Jessie Montgomery as the next Mead Composer-in-Residence, beginning July 1 and continuing through June 30, 2024. 

Fall 2020 | During the COVID-19 hiatus, Muti offers artistic guidance for the 22 episodes of the streaming series CSO Sessions, in addition to offering coaching sessions, via Zoom, to members of the CSO and to participants in the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative.

Feb. 6-8, 2020 | Muti conducts Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and an all-star cast of soloists, including mezzo-sopranos Anita Rachvelishvili as Santuzza, Ronnita Miller as Mamma Lucia and Sasha Cooke as Lola; tenor Piero Pretti as Turiddu and baritone Luca Salsi as Alfio. The program is recorded and released to acclaim on CSO Resound.

Jan. 9-23, 2020 | Muti and the CSO embark on their eighth European tour together with stops in eight cities in six countries, including a residency at the Musikverein in Vienna, where they perform Verdi’s Requiem in honor of the hall’s 150th anniversary.

November 2019 | Muti names Lina González-Granados as the winner of the International Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprenticeship. The apprenticeship program was announced by Muti in 2009 in keeping with his longtime dedication to mentoring young musicians in Chicago and elsewhere. The post was previously held by Sean Kubota (2011-2013), Matthew Aucoin (2013-2015) and Erina Yashima (2015-2019).

Nov. 15-16, 2019 | Maestro Muti and the CSO perform two concerts in Carnegie Hall, a visit that marks the Orchestra’s 139th and 140th appearances at the New York City venue. Programs include Berlioz’s The Death of Cleopatra, featuring mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, and works by Prokofiev, Respighi and Bizet. The first concert on Nov. 15 is broadcast and streamed live by New York’s WQXR-FM. 

September 2019 | Muti begins the Beethoven 250 celebration by conducting Beethoven’s First and Third symphonies. Throughout the 2019-20 season, Muti, the CSO and artists on the Symphony Center Presents series perform works by Ludwig van Beethoven in honor of the 250th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Before concerts are canceled due to COVID-19, Muti conducts Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 1-3 and 5, as well as Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos as soloist.

Sept. 17, 2019 | Ahead of the start of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 2019-20 season, Riccardo Muti returns to historic Wrigley Field, where he throws out the first pitch at the game between the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. (Muti previously took the Wrigley Field mound to throw out the first pitch on June 13, 2012.)

June 22, 2019 | The Chicago West Community Music Center presents Riccardo Muti with the W.I.S.H. Award for Distinguished Service to Music Education at a gala celebrating the center’s 20th anniversary. This event precedes his September 2019 open rehearsal with students of the CWCMC.

June 21, 23 and 25, 2019 | Maestro Muti closes the 2019-20 season with three highly anticipated performances of Verdi’s Aida with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and a cast of distinguished soloists, including Krassimira Stoyanova in the title role (replaced in one performance by Elaine Alvarez), Francesco Meli as Radamès and Anita Rachvelishvili as Amneris. 

Feb. 27-March 2, 2019 | The CSO and Music Director Riccardo Muti conducts their Florida Tour 2019, with stops in West Palm Beach, Miami and Naples. The Naples concerts mark the start of a planned three-year residency presented by Artis—Naples.   

Jan. 19-Feb. 4, 2019 | Muti and the CSO embark on their second tour to Asia. In addition to concerts in Taipei, Shanghai, Beijing and Osaka, Muti leads the CSO, soloists and the Tokyo Opera Singers in two performances of Verdi’s Requiem during a residency at the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo. 

Sept. 21-22 and 25, 2018 | Muti opens the CSO 2018-19 subscription season with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar). In attendance is Madame Irina Shostakovich, the composer’s widow, who joins Muti and Scholar-in-Residence Phillip Huscher on stage after the performance for a Q&A session with the audience, aided by a translator. The performance is later released on CSO Resound in December 2019, and receives a Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Classical.

June 26, 2018 | Muti appoints Missy Mazzoli as Mead Composer-in-Residence. Her CSO-commissioned work Orpheus Undone, postponed due to concert cancellations during the COVID-19 pandemic, will receive its world premiere with Muti and the Orchestra in 2022.  

April 12-14 and 17, 2018 | Acclaimed actor and Illinois native John Malkovich joins the CSO and Muti for four performances of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait.

March 22, 2018 | Muti conducts the world premiere of CSO viola Max Raimi’s Three Lisel Mueller Settings featuring mezzo-soprano soloist Elizabeth DeShong and CSO colleagues Principal Clarinet Stephen Williamson, Principal Bassoon Keith Buncke and Principal Bass Alexander Hanna.   

Feb. 1, 2018 | Muti conducts the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Low Brass Concerto, a CSO co-commission, and then takes the work on tour, performing it in New York at Carnegie Hall, in Naples and West Palm Beach, Florida, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  

Nov.  15, 2017 | Muti conducts a community concert at Lane Tech College Prep High School on Chicago’s North Side; it shares in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s legacy, as some of its alumni went on to become CSO members. Muti would conduct a community concert there again on Sept. 24, 2019. 

June 22-25, 2017 | Muti concludes the season with a performance of Italian opera masterworks, including the Prologue to Mefistofele by Boito. Selections from these performances are later released on CSO Resound in December 2018. 

June 16, 2017 | The live recording of the 2016-17 season finale performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 on CSO Resound is released and later ranked by the New York Times as a best classical music recording of the year. 

May 2017 | Muti conducts Brahms’ four symphonies in two memorable sets of concerts.  

March 17, 2017 | Muti conducts the CSO at Edman Memorial Chapel as part of the CSO’s first official season of concerts at Wheaton College. Joining Muti and the CSO for this concert is pianist Mitsuko Uchida, performing Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto.  

Feb. 17, 2017 | Muti conducts a special free community performance Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross at Holy Name Cathedral with Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, who narrates the titles of each movement in Latin and English, in addition to providing sacred reflections on the music.  

Jan. 13-27, 2017 | Muti leads the Orchestra on its 60th international tour and 33rd tour to Europe with 11 concerts in cities including Paris, Hamburg, Aalborg in Denmark, Milan, Vienna, Baden-Baden and Frankfurt. 

Oct. 13, 2016 | Muti and the CSO return to Apostolic Church of God, opening the concert with an invitation to sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often referred to as the Black National Anthem, with the Chatham Choral Ensemble and guest vocalists. 

June 14, 2016 | Muti unveils a bust of Fritz Reiner, the CSO’s sixth music director, in the Michigan Avenue outer lobby of Symphony Center as part of the CSO’s 125th season celebration. 

April 21, 23 and 26, 2016 | Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and an all-star cast of soloists, with baritone Ambrogio Maestri in the title role, in Verdi’s final opera Falstaff. “The CSO’s 125th anniversary season has brought us nothing finer,” says John von Rhein in the Chicago Tribune. 

Jan. 15-29, 2016 | Muti and the Orchestra undertake their first tour together to Asia with 10 sold-out concerts in Taipei, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul. 

September 2015 | This fall includes the release for the double-disc feature of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Lélio, or Return to Life, Op. 14b, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus (Duain Wolfe, director), Gerard Depardieu as narrator, tenor Mario Zeffiri and bass-baritone Kyle Ketelsen, recorded during Muti’s first subscription concerts as music director in September 2010. 

Sept. 21, 2015 | To recognize the shared 125th anniversary of the University of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a sponsored public discussion between Riccardo Muti and Phillip Huscher, CSO program annotator, occurs at the Logan Center for the Arts on the University of Chicago campus. 

Sept. 18, 2015 | Riccardo Muti opens the Orchestra’s 125th anniversary season with a special weekend of performances, including a Concert for Chicago for an audience of more than 5,000, who, despite a tornado warning, brave the inclement weather to support Muti and the CSO and to hear Mahler’s First Symphony. 

June 18, 2015 | Muti conducts the premiere of Mead Composer-in-Residence Mason Bates’ Anthology of Fantastic Zoology, a work dedicated to Muti. The work is later released in June 2016 on a CSO Resound recording.  

January 2015 | Muti appoints Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek to three-year terms as Mead Composers-in-Residence. During their time with the CSO, each of the composers has multiple works conducted by Muti, including CSO commissions, bringing these emerging composers to international attention. 

Jan. 22-24, 2015 | Muti and the CSO perform one of Prokofiev’s most famous and monumental scores for the films of Sergei Eisenstein, Alexander Nevsky. They present Ivan the Terrible in February 2017, along with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and actor Gérard Depardieu in the title role. 

Oct. 20-Nov. 2, 2014 | On the 2014 European Tour, Muti conducts the CSO’s debuts in Warsaw, Poland, and Geneva, Switzerland, in addition to performances in Luxembourg, Paris and a week-long residency at the Musikverein in Vienna. 

September 2014 | CSO Resound releases an album featuring the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti in performance from October 2013, playing an extended suite drawn from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet score.  

Sept. 19, 2014 | Muti conducts a Concert for Chicago at Millennium Park, an all-Tchaikovsky program featuring The Tempest, a suite from The Sleeping Beauty and the Fourth Symphony. Throughout the season, Muti leads the CSO in a series of concerts exploring the symphonic works of Tchaikovsky, including his seven symphonies, alongside the symphonic works of Alexander Scriabin.  

Sept. 18, 2014 | A special performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, conducted by Riccardo Muti, is recorded live and made available online, thanks to the support of a generous anonymous donor. The video has since received more than 31 million views on YouTube alone.  

June 20, 2014 | Riccardo Muti gives the keynote address at the commencement ceremonies for Northwestern University’s graduation at Ryan Field in Evanston. 

April 2014 | The CSO Resound recording of Verdi’s Otello receives the International Opera Award for Best Complete Opera.

Feb. 6-8, 2014 | In addition to performances of Schubert’s Mass No. 5 in A-flat Major, Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Ennio Morricone’s Voices from the Silence, a work Muti suggested Morricone compose in tribute to 9/11. Morricone comes to Chicago for these performances. 

Jan. 30-31 and Feb. 1, 2014 | Riccardo Muti conducts Giovanni Sollima’s Antidotum Tarantulae XXI, Concerto for Two Cellos and Orchestra, with Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant Yo-Yo Ma and the composer as soloists. These concerts also begin Muti’s season-long presentation of Schubert’s eight symphonies: the first complete cycle in a single season in the CSO’s history of Schubert’s seven completed symphonies and the Unfinished Symphony No. 8, in addition to Schubert’s Mass No. 5 in A-flat Major, D. 591. 

September-October 2013 | Muti leads a three-week celebration honoring Verdi’s bicentennial, including concert performances of Macbeth, the CSO Resound release of Otello and the first CSO webcast of Verdi’s Requiem on Oct. 10, 2013, Verdi’s 200th birthday.  

Sept. 18, 2013 | Muti leads the orchestra in a free community concert at Morton East High School in Cicero. In addition to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Men of the Chicago Symphony Chorus, as well as soprano Barbara Frittoli and bass Luca Dall’Amico, the performance features community choruses City Voices, Kol Zimrah, North Shore Choral Society and the Wicker Park Choral Singers. 

June 19, 2013 | Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra jump on the Chicago Blackhawks bandwagon, recording a video of the song “Chelsea Dagger” by the Scottish band the Fratellis. For many years, the song has been played in United Center whenever the Blackhawks score a goal. 

October 2012 | Following performances at Carnegie Hall, Muti embarks with the CSO on the orchestra’s first trip to Mexico for two concerts, one each at the Teatro Juárez in Guanajuato on Oct. 8 and the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City on Oct. 10. Both programs include Franck’s Symphony in D Minor and Brahms’ Second Symphony, and the encore each evening is Martucci’s Notturno. 

Sept. 21, 2012 | Muti returns to Millennium Park with the CSO to perform Orff’s Carmina Burana with soloists Rosa Feola, Antonio Giovanini and Audun Iversen, along with the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Chicago Children’s Choir for another memorable Concert for Chicago. 

April 2012 | On the CSO’s second trip ever to Russia, Muti leads three concerts: two at the Great Hall of the Conservatory in Moscow (April 18-19) and one at the Great Hall of the Philharmonia in St. Petersburg (April 21). The tour continues to the Italian cities of Rome, Naples, Brescia and Ravenna. 

March 15-17, 2012 | Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Men of the Chicago Symphony Chorus in Schoenberg’s Kol Nidre, which was later released on CSO Resound on Sept. 30, 2016, with Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, recorded in June 2012.  

Feb. 14-19, 2012 | The CSO, with Muti at the podium, returns to California for the first time in 25 years for concerts in San Francisco, Costa Mesa, Palm Desert and San Diego. The February 2012 tour includes the West Coast premieres of pieces by CSO Mead Composers-in-Residence Mason Bates and Anna Clyne. Muti and the Orchestra tour the West Coast for a second time in the fall of 2017, with performances of works by CSO Mead Composers-in-Residence Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek.

Sept. 22, 2011 | The 2011-12 season begins with a free community concert at the Apostolic Church of God in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago with a crowd of almost 6,000 people ranging in age from toddlers to senior citizens. Muti and the CSO will return to this venue in October 2016. 

Aug. 22-Sept. 7, 2011 | Muti and the CSO travel on their first European tour together since his appointment as music director. The tour includes performances at the Salzburg, Lucerne and Dresden music festivals in Luxembourg at the Philharmonie, in Paris at the Salle Pleyel and in Vienna at the Musikverein.  

May 5, 2011 | Muti conducts the world premiere performance of Bernard Rands’ Danza petrificada at Orchestra Hall and then takes the work on tour to Europe with the CSO. Muti also conducts the world premiere of another CSO commission by Rands, DREAM for Orchestra, in November 2019. 

April 2011 | On April 7, 9 and 12, Muti conducts concert performances of Verdi’s Otello, followed by another performance at Carnegie Hall on April 15. The Chicago performances are later released on a recording on the CSO Resound label to coincide with Verdi’s 200th birthday in fall 2013.  

Feb. 13, 2011 | The CSO’s 2009 recording of Verdi’s Requiem, conducted by Muti, receives Grammy Awards for Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance.

Sept. 27, 2010 | Muti brings a special performance to the residents of the Illinois Youth Centers in Warrenville. Each season since 2010, Muti has visited a Chicago-area juvenile justice facility to present an interactive recital for incarcerated youth. Maestro Muti’s prison visits have inspired a portfolio of musical projects for the Negaunee Music Institute in partnership with specialists in the field. 

Sept. 19, 2010 | Muti officially begins his tenure as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s 10th music director, leading a free concert in Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion before a crowd of more than 25,000 people, starting an annual tradition for the people of Chicago. 

October 2009 | Riccardo Muti, music director designate, outlines several initiatives for his tenure. One is to appoint CSO Mead Composers-in-Residence who would act as advocates within the Chicago community to further the understanding and appreciation of all music. He names Mason Bates and Anna Clyne to two-year terms beginning in 2010, which are later extended through the 2014-15 season.  

January 2009 | Muti’s first appearances as the CSO’s music director designate are on Jan. 15, 16 and 17, 2009, conducting Verdi’s Requiem. Soloists are Barbara Frittoli, Olga Borodina, Mario Zeffiri and Ildar Abdrazakov, with the Chicago Symphony Chorus prepared by Chorus Director Duain Wolfe. 

May 5, 2008 | Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association President Deborah Rutter Card announces that Riccardo Muti will become the CSO’s 10th music director, beginning with the 2010-11 season. 

September 2007 | After an absence of 32 years, Muti returns to conduct the CSO for a month-long residency. On Sept. 14 and 16, he leads the CSO’s first subscription concerts of the 117th season, which include Prokofiev’s Third Symphony. The second week of subscription concerts include performances of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, and a gala on Sept. 15 with soprano Barbara Frittoli in arias by Cilea, Puccini and Verdi. 

Sept. 26-Oct. 6, 2007 | Following the concerts in Chicago, Muti leads the CSO on a seven-city, nine-concert European tour to England, France, Germany and a return to Italy for the first time in more than 25 years, with debut performances in Rome, Turin and Verona.  

March 20-22, 1975 | Muti returns conduct the CSO on subscription concerts at Orchestra Hall, leading Vivaldi’s Concerto in A Major for Strings and Continuo, Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique, Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes and the orchestra’s first subscription concert performances of Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony.

June 25, 1973 | Riccardo Muti makes his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival, conducting Rossini’s Overture to Semiramide, Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A Minor and Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.