Like the Pope, the Maestro increasingly reverts to Latin epigrams to keep his audience alert.
Here, in his home town Ravenna, he tells them them ‘every form of beauty means unity’. It’s a quote from Saint Augustine, who conducted in the fourth century. Here endeth the sermon.
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Italians certainly know their Latin inside out!
Don’t get fooled, Muti’s knowledge of Latin is rudimentary at best. He is very fond of blabbering Latin quotes in interviews (most of the times completely out of context), to impress those who don’t know any better.
This ridiculous habit stems from the deep insecurity developed in his early Milan years. The intellectual and cultural circles of that sophisticated city could spot miles away that the young upcoming conductor, outside his musical knowledge, had a mere high school diploma and lacked a broader education. Influential journalists compared him to Abbado, intellectually a man of much superior caliber. To this day, Muti displays an inferiority complex.
His erudition is contrived and very limited outside the musical realm, even as he does an outstanding job convincing the ignorant otherwise. In one non-musical area he possesses an encyclopedic knowledge, rooted in genuine interest: dirty jokes (as displayed in the youtube Fabio Fazio interview, and, alack, much more abundantly in private).
Everything you said may be true. I believe so.
But do we realize that we are criticizing someone just because he used a Latin sentence?
As I said, what’s the problem? Did he insult anyone? Did the members of the orchestra (being in Ravenna probably composed by mostly italians) get offended, or humiliated, or felt intellectually inferior because they didn’t understand the quote?
If not, what are we talking about?
I really don’t understand.
The funniest thing when Muti is in this mode is the irritation it engenders in fellow Italians. Most often he will say “Come voi ben sapete,” or “As you well know,” and then follow it with some esoteric detail familiar to precisely nobody listening.
https://www.musicalamerica.com/mablogs/?tag=riccardo-muti
What a bizarre comment. You speak as one with special knowledge under cover of anonymity. Your choice of moniker contributes to the illusion of enviable insider status. In fact, your bullshit psychologizing barely conceals a nauseating cultural and class prejudice worthy of Matteo Salvini: Milanese aristocrat Abbado versus Neapolitan peasant Muti. Moreover, you know as well as I that quoting aphorisms in their original form is a convention of literary, artistic, scientific, philosophical conversation (or are we to think that everyone who has ever uttered the words cogito ergo sum without pergect knowledge of Latin is a charlatan?) You’re ridiculous.
Not sure about “cultural and class prejudice,” but clearly there is some prejudice or agenda. What bothers me more is that he(/she) represents himself as part of the CSOA, and it just seems wrong that such a person would bash one of their own in public in this way in a forum such as this. All over a stupid quip said during an engagement 4,000 miles away from the CSO.
These grotesque polemics against Muti have become fatuous and tedious. CSOA Insider knows nothing about Italian education or culture. Muti’s ‘rudimentary knowledge of Latin’ will have been gained at his ‘high school’, the Liceo classico at Naples (a city not lacking in culture), where Latin and Ancient Greek were taught to a standard higher than that achieved by most present-day American PhD Classics candidates. After the Liceo, he went on, like Abbado, to be accepted for study at the Milan Music conservatory, without the advantage Abbado may have had by his father being one of the professors there.
“ where Latin and Ancient Greek were taught to a standard higher than that achieved by most present-day American PhD Classics candidates.”
hahahahahahhahahah
I think you have settled that argument !
What a remarkable charlatan.
You can drop the “remarkable” part.
Amen
Nope, the Latin actually says “the form of beauty is unity,” which is very different.
Romans go home!
Absolutely. The idea is that all beauty has an underlying unity.
Terribly boring, how come this guy still conducts. So many interesting conductors out there.
Is he boring as you do not understand what he is trying to say?
And it continues, the small poeple spitting their venom on a much more important musician than themselves. Yesterday Boulez, today Muti…..tomorrow?
Really, now, what’s wrong with that? I understand the usual Muti bashing here (I am not really a fan of the man myself), but, do I need to remind you that Italian comes, after all, from Latin, and there are many instances where Italians use Latin mottos even in the day to day speaking, without feeling like (or trying to copying) the Pope?
Examples: carpe diem, lupus in fabula, ora et labora, repetita iuvant, etc.
Really, I think most of the posts here seem to have the sole purpose to create polemic for the sake of it….
You’re catching on.
You are right. It’s a pity I don’t know how to conduct an orchestra, or I may have a luminous career ahead of me! 😀
So beautiful, so profound. And so original. It reminds me when the lofty Maestro quoted, and all for our benefit, “Verweile doch, du bist so schon”!
Where else would we encounter these treasures of wisdom? His sermons elevate us from our spiritual mud, and bestow rare gifts and insights invaluable on us all.
Thank you Maestro, you are the Gift that keeps on giving. We would fly on Love’s wings with you, even to the Caribbeans and back!
“Thou shouldst not have been old before thou hadst been wise.”
The Maestro give me another “dedica” and also to my friend that she plays in this orchestra!
File this under: We all get quirky as we age?
You don’t have to be fluent in Latin to quote someone. He’s fluent in music while most people hum a tune to show how musically literate they are. And that’s okay too.
Fascinating insight into the psychological motivation of Riccardo Muti for Latin quotes, but almost touching in comparison with the monstrous neuroses of other great conductors, which brings us to the point : unusual habits which don’t do harm to anyone will not take away from his legacy, and there are few conductors who have so well served Verdi throughout their careers. For this alone he will be long remembered.
We are anxiously waiting for other precious details on Muti’s life. We can only hope Slippeddisc won’t miss next time he burps or maybe even pushes the boundary beyond the imaginable with a quote in ancient greek, be it eureka or gnothi seauton. Behind learning of such life-altering events we will be treated to the deeply complex insights of CSOA Insider, Lothario and the many in here (or is just the same individual with multiple-personality disorder?) in whose heads Muti seems to perennially reside for free.