Riccardo Muti

Riccardo Muti was born in Naples in 1941 and it was here that he later went on to study the piano and gain the top grade at the Conservatorio di San Pietro a Majella as well as completing his philosophy studies at the university. He went on to graduate in composition and orchestral conducting at the Milan Conservatoire under Bruno Bettinelli and Antonino Votto where again, he finished his studies with the highest degree. In 1967 he was the first Italian in the history of the competition to win the Guido Cantelli Prize, attracting the musical world’s attention and thus beginning his international career. From 1968 to 1980 he was Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In 1972 he was invited to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a series of concerts which earned him the post of Principal Conductor, in which he succeeded Otto Klemperer. In 1974 he undertook his first recording with EMI: Giuseppe Verdi‘s opera Aida with the brilliant cast of Montserrat Caballe, Placido Domingo, Fiorenza Cossotto, Nicolai Ghiaurov and Piero Cappuccilli. This recording will be re-released this summer in the series Great Recordings of the Century. In 1979 the London Philharmonia named him Music Director and when Muti withdrew from that position in 1982 he was honoured by the orchestra as Conductor Laureate, a title which was created especially for him. From 1980 to 1992 he was Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which he conducted on numerous tours and in a rich array of recordings (including all of Beethoven’s symphonies, Berlioz` Symphonie Fantastique, all of Scriabin‘s symphonies, Tchaikovsky‘s Symphonies no. 4, 5, 5, pieces by Chabrier, de Falla, Ravel, Respighi, Chausson, Debussy and many others). On November 5th 1970 Riccardo Muti made his début on the rostrum of La Scala Theatre at a symphony concert. Since 1971, Muti has conducted in Salzburg every year. He made his debut with Donizetti’s opera Don Pasquale for which he had been invited by Karajan. His Mozart interpretations have become a tradition and he has conducted operas by Mozart, Verdi and concerts with a large variety of programmes. The performances of Mozart‘s La Clemenza di Tito and Haydn‘s Die sieben letzten Worte unseres Erlösers am kreuz were released with EMI Classics as part of the famous Salzburger Festspieldokumente series. Since 1986 he has been Music Director of La Scala. He has conducted the most popular early Verdi scores: Nabucco, Attila, Ernani – all recorded with EMI Classics. Other Verdi operas being conducted at La Scala and recorded with EMI are Macbeth, La Traviata, Rigoletto, La forza del destino and Don Carlos. In this anniversary year of Verdi, EMI released all of Muti’s Verdi recordings in one anniversary box. Besides these Verdi performances Muti put an emphasis on the neoclassical repertory with operas by Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, Cherubini, Spontini and Gluck. Emphasis was also put on the operas of Wagner and Mozart. In the last few years he has intensified his connections with La Scala Filarmonica, bringing it to unanimous recognition as an orchestra of international significance endowed with an artistic personality and sharply Italian identity in sound. With this orchestra he has recorded with EMI Classics, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Barbara Frittoli and Anna Caterina Antonacci, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Nino Rota’s Piano Concertos (with Giorgia Tommassi). In addition to the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Salzburg Festival and La Scala, Muti has directed opera productions in Philadelphia, New York, Munich, Vienna, London and Ravenna, for the Ravenna Festival. In July 1994 Riccardo Muti conducted Bellini`s Opera Norma at the Ravenna Festival which was recorded live in 1995 with the distinguished cast of Jane Eaglen, Vincenzo La Scola and Eva Mei with EMI Classics. The Italian newspaper Il resto del Carlino called the performance `The most remarkable musical interpretation ... of recent years.` Muti has gained a special reputation as exceptional conductor of Mozart. For EMI Classics he has recorded Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro with the Vienna Philharmonic. In the last few years he has conducted the da Ponte operas by Mozart in productions of Wiener Festwochen with the ensemble of the Vienna Stateopera in Theater an der Wien. Next year he will undertake all three operas in three cycles. With the Wiener Philharmoniker, at Salzburg 1991 he conducted the concert to celebrate the Orchestra’s 150 anniversary. His close working relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic led to the most honourable invitations to conduct the New Year’s concert three times, 1993, 1997 and 2000. The second of the concerts (recorded with EMI Classics) was awarded with gold in Austria and has sold over 100.000 copies worldwide. In January of this year Riccardo Muti was awarded with platinum for 50.000 sold copies in Austria for the New Year’s Concert 2000. In May 2001 Muti and the Vienna Philharmonic were awarded with the Austrian Amadeus Award for the New Year’s Concert 2000. In 1996 he conducted the ceremonial concert for the Austrian millennium and the following year, as part of the Schubert Bicentenary celebrations, a major series, culminating in the one held in St. Steven‘s Cathedral. This year saw the re-release of Muti’s recordings of all symphonies by Schubert with the Vienna Philharmonic. In 1998 Riccardo Muti conducted the festive concert of the 500th anniversary of the Viennese Hofmusikkapelle in the Großen Musikvereinssaal. Muti remains the most important contemporary conductor to have been voted an honorary member by the much-respected Hofmusikkapelle, which consists of members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the mens' chorus of the Vienna State Opera and the Wiener Sängerknaben. In making him an honorary member this June, the ensemble was expressing its recognition of his outstanding work with them in Vienna and in St. Peter's in Rome. Muti is annual guest conductor of the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester of Munich, the New York Philharmonic and the Orchestre Nationale de France. During his career Riccardo Muti has received numerous awards and academic honours. In June 2001, the day after the much acclaimed first night of Le nozze di Figaro in Theater an der Wien, Muti was hounored by the President of the Republic of Austria with the Großen Silbernen Ehrenzeichen der Republik Österreich, the highest degree which can be given to a non-Austrian. To celebrate Muti`s 60th birthday in July 2001 EMI Classics will release two anniversary boxes which show the wide range of Muti’s repertoire – all Schubert symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic and also Scriabin symphonies with the Philadelphia Orchestra.