We’re hearing from a reliable insider that Riccardo Muti will remain at the helm of the Chicago Syphony for the coming season, 2023-24.
His title will be ‘Music Director Emeritus for Life’.
Terms have been agreed, but the contract is not yet signed.
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isn’t “music director emeritus for life” redundant?
yes
By Jupiter! Does this new title really have to be in Latin ?!?! … Dear Venus!!
But, it’s all fine and dandy, let’s appease Muti with childish positive reinforcements and Latin utterances. I’d be much more interested in reading the terms of the new contract. Will Alexander extend the Maestro’s current “private tropical forest benefits”, also for Life? We know he wants them and won’t take no for an answer!
No tropical forest … no Chicago!
What does “private tropical forest
Benefits” mean? I think
musicians of the highest quality, as is the case with the CSO, should have the ultimate say regarding who should guide them forward. If you have had the good fortune to hear his Beethoven “Missa” it is very difficult to argue that the man is past his prime; anzi – he still seems to be passing his limit – with the energy and ambition of a man half his age, but also with the wisdom and introspection that comes only with years of experience.
I think the word “Emeritus” became accepted as an english word a few hundred years ago. Same as “Orchestra”, and “Conductor”.
Reading this from sleepy rural England I am puzzled what everyone is talking about? I detect I’m not in-on the joke. What is all this mysterious hinting about Muti in Chicago? It can’t be that reliable if it’s not printable?
correct. these anonymous trolls are not reliable at all.
I’ve been told he is already promptly at work on that extension. Think about that …
It is, absolutely. It is the title that Muti specifically wanted and, as we pointed out before, his knowledge of Latin is rudimentary at best, though enough to fool and impress the ignorant.
“Emeritus” means retired, a honorary title for someone who has actually held the title before. Beyond the surface, this is not a victory, but a defeat for the Italian Maestro, who fought very hard (and is somewhat still battling) to remain Music Director.
This arrangement is where each party ended up settling. The CSO gets a little something out of it, a one-year temporary fix in the face of a very uncertain future. The sales of Thielemann’s dates are doing exceedingly poorly, a measure of the damaged standing of the Orchestra which can’t conceivably fill its big hall anymore with Bruckner 8, not matter how great the Maestro’s star power. The new annual report will be out soon and it won’t be pretty, faithfully reflecting the decadence of the Muti-Alexander era. In a way, the CSO is now using Muti: it will extract at least one more European tour out of him in early 2024, but the stain of linking its name to the man’s egregious and blatant misconduct will remain … for Life.
Can you explain “but the stain of linking its name to the man’s egregious and blatant misconduct will remain … for Life?”
I have a guess as to what they may be hinting. I said in last year’s post (“The Muti shitstorm continues”) that one Italian article
(https://www.dagospia.com/rubrica-2/media_e_tv/muti-fu-ndash-non-puo-sorprendere-che-maestro-abbia-inveito-270057.htm) mentions a very tough life for Muti’s wife, and specifically mentions american secretaries and choristers (“segretarie americane, coriste”). In the article Muti is depicted as a womanizer, and worse, and if these things were true and the people involved happened to be CSO employees, then the conduct would be pretty appalling especially if the leadership of the CSO was aware as some of the posters have been implying. It would also make Muti a big hypocrite since he professes himself a devoted husband (sort of a la Domingo). I can’t say if there is any truth to these allegations, but sometimes where is always a lot of smoke there can be fire and if I was the CSO I would be concerned. I did hear second hand rumors all overwhelmingly and consistently in the same direction, since the very beginning of Muti’s arrival in Chicago, but much more intense in the past few years.
Would Mary Louise Gorno, the CEO of Ingenuity International and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, recommend Steve Easterbrook as CEO candidate to one of her clients?
Sometimes a question is the best explanation.
Gorno is more intent on kissing Muti’s (beep) , kneeling and apologizing profusely for missing a lunch with him than on applying to the CSO the same ethical and professional standards that she is applying to her corporate clients. With these people at the wheel no wonder the CSO is where it is.
you can’t make your explanation clearly because the fact of the matter is that you have no explanation. all you have is some deranged desire to run this smear campaign and it’s sickening.
No, because Muti originally demanded “Music Director Emeritus for Eternity” and the board was like, uhh, how about we just settle for as long as you live, “for Life”?
And Muti was like, sure, as long as Barenboim doesn’t get the same title, I’m cool with it
As readers absorb this report, they should be aware that Muti, regardless of any lofty title, will no longer have Music Director authority next season, and that his total time in residency will be cut by at least 40%, a detail that does not sit well with him. His compensation will be adjusted. He has become a stop gap measure, and he knows it.
Surely it’s understated, though?
I’d suggest “His Excellency Sir Music Director XI of the Chicago Symphony and of His other Orchestras, by the Grace of God [joking of course; MDs hold their position by their own grace], Emeritus, For Life and Beyond, Defender of the Faith (in proper Italian opera)”
Either that or “Music Director Emeritus, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, in good times and ill, until death us do part.”
Riccardo Muti is honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Commander of the French Legion of Honour, Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great, bearer of the 2nd Class Gold and Silver Star of Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, bearer of the 3rd Class Order of Merit of the Ukraine, and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
He probably couldn’t care less about that new job description in Chicago.
Yes, yes, such a great list! Wait, you forget, I am sure not intentionally, that he is a recipient of Putin’s Order of Friendship and a Honorary Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Arts!
For some unknown reason Muti has taken those titles out off his website, and the CSO is no longer mentioning them on the programs, I can’t explain why, can you? Muti has been proud about those titles for a decade in Chicago.
Luckily, as far as I know, he has not returned them, he is just being humble and discreet about them I am sure!
No.
Emeritus just means honorary.
No, it means “having served”, as in not serving anymore, aka retired.
No! We can’t get rid of Muti soon enough. This is horrible news.
It’s hard for me to understand given that orchestra’s history of being able to attract top conducting talent.
Is bringing in someone like Honeck or Jurowski really considered a worse alternative than more Muti?
Not to me. His best years were decades ago.
I would take this to mean that the CSO has not yet located a successor it would consider ideal (which means, of course, good chemistry with the musicians, not simply musical talent and skill).
Manfred Honeck would be the best choice, but he is happy to remain in Pittsburgh with his internationally recognized ensemble.
Judging by his recordings, he seems to me skilled but usually not particularly perceptive, nuanced, polished, original, or inspiring. Why not consider Paavo Jarvi or JoAnn Faletta or, yes, Marin Alsop? Don’t ignore American candidates.
My guess will be that Chicago cannot manage to find a decent successor, so the contract is prolongated, on Muti’s terms of course.
I see him thinking of appropriate wording for ‘Music Director Emeritus for Life’ title.
My guess is they plan on launching 23-24 in say, 3-4 months and they still need to see some of the people they’re considering for MD. They don’t want to risk launching a season with nobody in particular in that position so they extend Muti with an honorary title. If they’re lucky they might have a MD Designate as well by this time next year. A cumbersome process, especially so with the high profile outfits and the pandemic didn’t help.
not to be picky but i don’t think that the cso board is quite as optimistic as your notice implies – i assume that the end point of the extension is in 2024 and not 2034
why not? that would just put him at 93 or so
Probably that was the meaning of the ‘for life’ bit.
Wow, lucky them:(
Muti has had a very good run over the decades, but he’s becoming that great athlete who keeps on playing well past his/her prime. Chicago can’t put off the inevitable forever.
Chicagorat incoming 3,2,1…
Crois moi, c’est le bordel …
… and it has been, and it will continue to be in the near literal, or technically, one could make the argument (not I obviously), even in the fully literal sense of the word. After all, Italians do it better! 😉
Now which conductor of a certain caliber and ambition would willingly become the next CSO Music Director, knowing that Muti still hangs around as Music Director Emeritus, for life, as a half corpse, but unpleasantly too much alive so to speak, alive enough to be a thorn in the flesh, because let’s be honest that is what he will be?
I mean, would you?
If the half corpse is as healthy as he seems to be, and of course he is, the CSO has sealed for itself another rudderless decade of inescapable mediocrity.
well, now that Thielemann is looking more and more likely to succeed Barenboim at the Berliner Staatsoper, Chicago is like, oh well, back to the drawing board
maybe Muti will give us HIS version of the Ring with Chicago
Obviously you never heard Muti’s dreadful Wagner or you would not make such nonchalant wishes and be so cavalier about it.
Of all things, Muti’s Verdi (Requiem, opera, concerts) performances in Salzburg these past years have been loud… but pedestrian at best – or, worst case, like the old Mitch Miller TV shows in the 60s with the bouncing sing-along ball on your screen.
“Emeritus for life” but the agreement ends in 2034? Is that Muti’s expected expiration date? May it be that he becomes emeritus after 2024?
This is fantastic news. I heard Muti conduct Pictures from an Exhibition last Saturday night in Chicago – it was extraordinary, one of the greatest, if not the greatest, live performances of the piece I have ever heard! The CSO played exquisitely for him!!
The NY Times seems to think that Christian Thielemann is being pursued, hence his appearances next week. Then again, Marin Alsop was considered a shoe-in a year ago but now it seems things have turned cold on the front.
Someone like Kristina Canellakis or James Gaffigan would have been more forward-looking choices (both have led the group) but Chicago appears to like the old-school eminences. We shall see.
Karina Canellakis
I went to 2 of her concerts with the CSO playing Heldenleben. The first was good but not tight enough. In contrast, the second one was one of the great nights at Orchestra Hall. In some passages it was like for a city person staring at a moonless night sky in the middle of the ocean for the first time. A dizzying or even an overwhelming experience. I tried to compare that unfairly with Makela’s Proms video with Oslo, and I had to turn it off within the first 5 minutes. I hope she will be back next season to complete her audition with the CSO.
She is a fantastic conductor.
seriously? This can’t be for real. What helm? Nobody is at the helm. Quoting from a very recent article on the Chicago Classical review, on Muti’s Oct. 7 concert: “Thursday’s performances overall proved a mixed affair” and ” many ensemble issues as Muti almost casually beat through the movement” in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at Exhibition.
Are we gonna have to endure another “star” way past his shelf life until 2034??
“Beat through the movement”… hmm… it comes to my mind, that in a crude average a conductors beats 100 times per minute.
At Muti’s salary, this must mean for conducting net 60 min of music, each beat gets him 10 more dollars. Not a bad job to hold on to for as long as possible…
“Quoting from a very recent article on the Chicago Classical review”
When did DIY on-line review sites become authoritative? Or any reviewer?
Come on now, Chicago Classical Review is hardly some random website.
For me, it was when they reviewed and dissected your compositions with great knowledge and insight. Having heard the works myself live, I understood the CCR guys really know their stuff.
Ah…so since you agree with what you read, the site qualifies as authoritative. Thanks for the clarification.
It is ridiculous to characterize any review as being “authoritative” or to criticize a review (whatever the source (and CCR is obviously at least a decent one)) for supposedly not being so. Regardless, your comment is troubling because it confirms that the orchestra is evidently oblivious to just how sedate and stagnant its playing has become over the past 15 years. Perhaps the players like Muti–I do not know why (though perhaps you could explain): for someone so arrogant, his vision and programing are remarkably uninspired. As an outside listener, I have not seen anything approaching a really enjoyable performance by the CSO since Haitink conducted Lutoslawski 4/Haydn/Beethoven with Perahia in 2008 or perhaps Haitink’s Mahler 2 or the series with Im Sommerwind and Heldenleben, but that is stretching back almost just as far. It wasn’t perfect and the orchestra was often sluggish back then (although more usually at Ravinia at which the orchestra often seems to fall to its worst), but I far preferred the days of Haitink and Boulez to anything over the last decade. CSO needs a change. And there are plenty of better candidates than the names we are hearing. At least they did not move forward with Alsop. That would have been a disaster. Brahms Academic Overture at the Hilary Hahn Sibelius concert when she was last here was terrible (though Sibelius concerto was of course excellent but that is hardly attributable to the conducting).
An institution like the CSO, blessed with a $200M or $300M endowment if my recollection is correct, is displaying an astonishing lack of confidence and ambition. The CSO is afraid and unable to take risks, turn the page and cut ties with an ultra-conservative, hyper-reactionary character who reportedly made a myriad of controversial and arguably bigoted statements on racial matters, gender inclusion, metoo; who picked fights with other conductors and I am sure I am missing something, and who is also clearly no longer the conductor he maybe once was, a long long time ago. Very sad. The CSO is not a relevant institution to Chicago’s and US society anymore, in my opinion.
He better not be making statements on “me too.” I’m one of his “me toos” (undoubtedly along with many others) and I would sure like to be included in that conversation. Despite such alleged statements, I stand by my comments above. He
Is not ultra-conservative; in both theory and practice he is certainly not racist or discriminatory in any way. Those who have criticized him here are out of step with the international music community who listen to his music, rather making unjustified statements based on his age. Chicago is lucky to have him, in his own right and given the lack of availability of worthy alternatives.
He has already made statements on metoo, sounds like you did not get the memo or read your papers.
Not discriminatory? Some people think Trump is not discriminatory, so it helps to check if we have the same definition. What is discriminatory to you? Take this test:
Vetoing a world famous Asian female pianist superstar from playing with the orchestra, and saying privately that she has ‘frog legs’ – is that discriminatory? Referring to a well respected Korean Maestro with intolerant racial labels – is that discriminatory?
Answer these then we’ll talk.
Yes, both are horribly racist and if said by a manager of a US corporation would probably lead to termination. If he, in fact, said these things, it is very troubling and the CSO should formally take note. Sounds like I missed more than a few memos.
Like two shipwreck victims hanging on to each other on a driftwood for their dear lives.
The NYT last week ran a good piece of Thielemann visiting Chicago, – – quoting Zachary Woolfe:
‘For his part, Muti, who has held positions on both sides of the Atlantic, spelled a note of warning for Thielemann: “To be a music director in the U.S. is different. The Generalmusikdirektor in Germany, it has much more power in an institution. In America, there are presidents, vice presidents, the committees, the board. A music director who is used to having a lot of freedom in his decisions has to adjust.” ‘
Well certainly the Maestro has adjusted well, not only to the US system but also to the US dollar to which he seems particularly attached.
Nice job Riccardo,
Now, next year please give us what you and we in Chicago all crave: an anti-revisionist, blackface Aida!
As Verdi intended!
Spot on – and you can bet that unlike in Ballo, this time the Maestro will not hire an African American soprano for the title role. To each opera its rightwing racial strategy …
Don’t they have American conductors over there anymore? Made in the USA? Seem to have gotten the British bug of going foreign! Buy American, America!
Muti promised performances in Chicago of the three Mozart Da Ponte operas. OK, he just got an extra season to deliver.
He did the big works, the Verdi operas etc, and this season the Missa Solemnis, now he needs to complete his legacy with Chicago with a reduced chamber orchestra in the Mozart trilogy. That’ll make the Emeritus title worth every word.
What I really hoped is for him to do that uncut version of Agnese di Hohenstaufen that he reportedly wanted. Alas, it is too late – and perhaps Chicago is not really the place for it.
Muti is just right for Chicago. There’s no one out there to equal him.
Muti is great. Good for Chicago.
Toscanini retired at 87. RM- a spring chicken in comparison……
Not all conductors age equally. Some have their best years at the end of their career. From what I’ve heard in recent years, Muti is most definitely not one of them.
There are warhorses he’s conducted many times over the years – Brahms 2nd, Schubert’s 9th – that were unimaginably dull in Chicago (basing on broadcasts). It almost sounded like he was intentionally sucking the life out of the music as a matter of principle to show the world he isn’t vulgar.
Too bad that Klaus Mikaela now has his hands full in Amsterdam, Paris and Oslo. He and the orchestra hit it off really well last spring.
Lina Granados Gonzalez is the orchestra’s assistant. Why not promote her? She knows the landscape there and having a Latina would be a strong statement for the orchestra. I’m guessing their board and possibly the musicians are waiting for a Thielemann type instead.
I wonder if the Makela announcement in Amsterdam has Chicago scrambling with this announcement.
More like, he has his hands full with Yuja!!
There is an Italian saying: “Guests are like fish. After three days they stink”.
If guests hang around for 15 years, or for life, the air must be pretty polluted.
Let’s just say that the news is as exciting as stale soggy cannelloni, or cold left over pizza from last night.
Fantastic! The world’s greatest conductor.
The pandemic derailed the process of finding a new Music Director, and Riccardo Muti will be needed to keep a hand in, dealing with issues like programming for future seasons and presiding at auditions to fill a number of openings in the orchestra. He has graciously agreed to do so, and it has been formalized with a title.
At last a reasonable comment. Thank you, Max!
Thank you, Max, for setting the record straight. These people on SD are nuts – I’m beginning to wonder why I waste my time reading such garbage! Are you reading this Norman? Muti is one of the greats and will continue to be so until the day he dies, which I hope will be far off in the future. I grew up with the CSO and remember very well the Reiner, Martinon, Giulini, Solti, and Barenboim days – the Muti years have been just as wonderful than all I have just mentioned, if not even greater than some. What I heard this past Saturday evening was truly remarkable (Pictures from an Exhibition) – we are very fortunate to have Muti stick around for a while longer. All I can say to the many people who continue to bash him and Jeff Alexander on this site is, GET A LIFE – you don’t know what you’re talking about. Norman, why do you print such nonsense?
How did he set the record straight? He pretty much confirmed every word of NL report!
As to the readers, some like Muti, some don’t, some despise him as a musician, as a human being, or both. So? We are in a free society, people write their opinions, deal with it. You like to go ahead and blow your hard earned money at the CSO, knock yourself out and respect those who feel differently, like myself.
A ridiculous narcissistic title for the most incurable Narcissus on the music scene in the last 100 years or so (even worse than Karajan)
Pam: Worse than Bernstein? I might not go that far.
With all respect to the reliable insider, I imagine the title will turn out to be ‘music director emeritus’, the standard usage. At least the year has been corrected.
NO! Ugh, I’m sorry the recent programming of the CSO has been BORING for the majority of the season. A lot of repeating, and only half a handful of actual interesting and diverse programming. It’s becoming tiring, I have actually stop going to CSO just because of that. Lack luster programming and conducting from Muti. What the CSO needs is a YOUNG, EXCITING, and forward thinking conductor as well as behind the scenes for those who do Artistic Programming. Another two year absence from the concert hall I guess.
A great conductor like Muti isn’t for you. There are plenty of mediocrities around – go and listen to them.
There is no question that Muti is a great conductor, I’m just saying the pieces he chooses are lack luster and boring now. And yes, Muti is very predictable, which is not a bad thing per say, but also not always exciting. How many more times do we need to hear Bolero or Tchaikovsky 4 for example? Grant Park and Sinfonietta ( who by the way aren’t mediocre ) have way more better and interesting programming than the CSO without doubt, thanks to their conductor and administration team.
At his age he should enjoy the Italian weather.
Good food. Buy a Ferrari and have fun.
Not stay in a city with a lot of crime.
My friend who she plays in the orchestra she tell me in the Bari tour he was like a river and she tell me he likes to see on video on the new phone! He is not old she thinks