Riccardo Muti received his first music lessons, in violin and piano, from his father who was a doctor and a proficient tenor. He studied philosophy at Naples University and, at the Naples Conservatory, composition with Jacopo Napoli and Nino Rota and piano with Vincenzo Vitale. He then undertook further study at the Milan Conservatory: composition with Bruno Bettinelli and conducting with Antonino Votto (a former assistant of Toscanini and a major presence at La Scala, Milan). Having participated in Franco Ferrara’s conducting seminars in Venice in 1965, Muti was the first Italian to win the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition, held in Milan, in 1967. This success resulted in numerous invitations to appear as a guest conductor, and in 1968 he accompanied the Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter at the Maggio Musicale in Florence, in addition making his conducting debut with Italian Radio. The following year he was appointed as chief conductor of the Maggio Musicale, Florence, a post which he held until 1980. He made his debut at La Scala, Milan, conducting an orchestral concert, in 1970, and at the Salzburg Festival in 1971, conducting a new production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
In Muti’s career, 1972 proved to be a seminal year: in addition to making his debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestras he conducted for the first time the New Philharmonia Orchestra, subsequently being invited to become this orchestra’s chief conductor in succession to Otto Klemperer. He took up this position in 1973, being named as the orchestra’s music director in 1979 and its conductor laureate in 1982. Muti first conducted at the Vienna State Opera in 1973 and during the following year made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; here he led a production of Verdi’s Aida, of which a studio recording was simultaneously made by EMI. Between 1980 and 1992 he was chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra in succession to Eugene Ormandy, having been the orchestra’s principal guest conductor from 1975. With the Philadelphia he recorded an extensive repertoire for EMI which included all of the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms and Scriabin, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos 4, 5, and 6, as well as numerous miscellaneous works.
Muti took up the position of chief conductor of La Scala, Milan – arguably the most important musical position in Italy – in 1986 and conducted a notably catholic repertoire with this distinguished company prior to his departure in 2005. In addition to the staple operas of the repertoire by Mozart, Puccini, Verdi, and Wagner, he led memorable revivals of lesser-known works by, amongst others, Cherubini, Gluck, Rossini and Spontini. Many of these productions were televised by RAI, the principal Italian broadcasting organisation, and have subsequently appeared on DVD. Muti also developed the concert-giving and recording activity of La Scala’s orchestra, the La Scala Filarmonica (La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra), establishing it as the finest orchestra in Italy with an original repertoire and a finely-honed playing style. Alongside his work in Milan Muti also developed an especially close relationship with the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducting the concerts to mark (in 1992) the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this orchestra’s founding, (in 1996) the Austrian millennium, and (in 1998) the five hundredth anniversary of the Vienna Hofmusikkapelle. He has also conducted the orchestra’s New Year’s Day concerts four times to date. With the Vienna Philharmonic he has recorded the three operas by Mozart to libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte, and the complete symphonies of Schubert and Schumann.
Other orchestras with which Muti appears regularly include the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre National of Radio France. In addition to his operatic work in Milan and Vienna he has conducted opera in Philadelphia, New York, Munich, London and at the Ravenna Festival, where his direction of Bellini’s Norma has been especially successful. Muti has received numerous honours, including the Grand Cross of the Italian Republic and the Grand Silver Cross of the Austrian Republic, and was made a member of the Légion d’honneur by the French Republic. In 1993 he conducted the concert to mark the reopening of the La Fenice opera house in Venice.
In Muti the great Italian tradition exemplified by Toscanini is continued. He has an extraordinary charisma as a conductor, presenting an immaculate figure on the podium, where his svelte appearance is matched by a musical intelligence of the highest calibre. His baton technique is extremely clear, and is complemented by a preference for intensely dramatic interpretations, which pays particular dividends in the opera house. His musical judgement is of the finest and he secures playing of great technical accuracy as well as of rich sonority. Muti has shown a probing sense of inquiry in terms of the repertoire that he conducts, which includes a considerable amount of twentieth-century music, and has consistently refused to compromise his artistic decisions and ideals for commercial or political reasons. His discography is large, and includes many unofficial as well as legitimate commercial recordings. It is equally strong in both the symphonic and operatic fields.
