Riccardo Muti: The Lebrecht Interview

Riccardo Muti: The Lebrecht Interview

Daily Comfort Zone

norman lebrecht

April 04, 2023

It appears that Apple has acquired the complete run of The Lebrecht interview on Radio 3.

Over the next few days, we will present highlight.

First, the revealing Muti interview, where he talked about his parents as never before.

Listen here.

Comments

  • GG says:

    Just to be clear, are you saying that the BBC are selling off licence-fee-payer funded programmes to Apple?

    • William Evans says:

      According to the Wikipedia entry for ‘BBC Studios’, the commercial arm of the Corporation (if accurate):
      “BBC Radio remain[s a] separate internal production division in the BBC (although BBC Radio Comedy is part of BBC Studios), and the rest of the former BBC Television division (channels and genre commissioning, including BBC Sport and BBC iPlayer) are part of the BBC Content division.
      It therefore does, indeed, seem odd that BBC Radio is restricting content access to those subscribing to a third-party commercial entity.

    • Dark Caldera says:

      BBC Studios have been making money by licensing BBC TV programmes around the world for decades. Audio titles have become really popular lately and they are now being exploited to make more money. About 26% of BBC Studios’ profits are given each year to the BBC and can only be used for making new programmes.

  • Tony Sanderson says:

    Sounds good. Just waiting for the Apple Classical App to be available on Android, which trustedreviews.com tells that Apple have promised as being soon.

    • Concertgebouw79 says:

      The best itw Norman did was with Chailly. Muti in his itw said nothing bad about Chailly and Abbado. I have to say. It was agood day.

  • Vale says:

    Tra poco, una cascata sulla mia foresta …

  • Chicagorat says:

    In this occasion, out of respect for Mr. Lebrecht’s work, I shall remain silent.

    And Apple, like I said, knows what it’s doing.

  • Lilian says:

    A very boring conductor, become even more boring in old age.

    • Robin says:

      Well, to Lilian and the others who agree with her what exactly is your gripe about Muti’s conducting? Muti has had one hell of a fine career so you can’t just dismiss him as you do without justification.

  • Robin says:

    This was a very good interview. Despite what one thinks of Muti as a conductor one cannot deny he has been a welcome and consistent force in music over the past decades. His comment which was critical of teaching how to conduct was particularly insightful. How many times do we see a video where, too often, a conductor has their head in the score instead of the score in their head? Not knowing the music fluently, and more or less sight reading the score, results in a dull performance. I think it was Maria Callas who made a sort of parallel comment (if it wasn’t her no doubt someone will correct me). Once, when she asked for stage direction she was told (was it by Serafin?) “It’s in the music, Verdi tells you what to do.” I like Muti because what one gets is a straight piece of well played music. To my ear he doesn’t strive to be different.

  • Zandonai says:

    I highly recommend Muti’s autobiography, published in 2011, lots of great insight and pro tips on Italian opera! The man is the foremost ambassador of Italian opera today. (I liked his Brahms and Mussorgsky too in his L.A. concerts)

  • justsaying says:

    Personally I think that if Muti’s performances were half as characterful and personal as his interviews, he really would be one of the greats.

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