And The Brass Ring Goes To Chicago Symphony: Riccardo Muti Says Yes

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra snagged the prize.

Riccardo Muti conducting the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall on Jan. 17, 2008.

In a classical music world of diminishing grandeur, the orchestra has hired one of the last lions of podium glamour, Riccardo Muti, as its music director and in so doing is lending a sheen to the city’s cultural profile.

At the same time Mr. Muti’s embrace of a cold city on Lake Michigan — which he diplomatically likens to the Mediterranean waters off his native Italy — dampened spirits at the New York Philharmonic, which failed to lure him at least once and, by some accounts, including his own, possibly twice.

His decision to assume the helm in Chicago is a remarkable turnaround. As recently as September, Mr. Muti dismissed the idea of taking over the responsibilities of an American music directorship, and all the nonmusical duties the job entails. But on Monday, in his first interview since signing the contract, he said he was fully committed to the position, including supervising auditions, helping raise money and engaging in community outreach.

“From my years in Philadelphia I know exactly what I’m expected to do as music director of an American orchestra,” said Mr. Muti, 66, who was music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1980 to 1992. The job, he said, was not just to make good music in the concert hall “but to serve the community.” He cited his work performing in trouble spots around the world, including the Balkans, Lebanon and Armenia, and giving concerts in places like a prison in Italy.

Mr. Muti called the Chicago Symphony “a perfect machine,” with the versatility to play huge works like Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 3 and Scriabin’s “Poem of Ecstasy” or to display the refined delicacy needed for small-scale Schubert.

He remained steadfastly unattached after resigning as music director of the Teatro Alla Scala in Milan in 2005 in an operatic kerfuffle. Orchestra musicians and other workers at the theater had turned against him in an internal political wrangle.

“I thought it was time for me to be absolutely free, like the birds in the air,” he said. “Birds go around and they enjoy their happiness, their freedom. But sometimes it can happen they find a tree, and they like to stop on a tree, and they didn’t know about the tree before. It doesn’t mean one tree is better than another tree. It just happens at the right moment in life.”

The Chicago Symphony has been without a music director since 2006, when Daniel Barenboim ended a 15-year run. In Mr. Muti it has a charismatic Italian who can draw the best from musicians, a dashing figure with flowing raven locks who also imposes a rigorous approach to the score.

The Chicago players learned about the appointment on Monday morning, when they were called to a conference room at Symphony Center and told the news. Mr. Muti will take over in the 2010-11 season. His contract will run for five years, and he is expected to conduct a minimum of 10 weeks a season and lead tours.

“The applause was giant,” said Eugene Izotov, the principal oboist, who had played under Mr. Muti during a guest appearances last fall. “We really connected in so many ways, musically, artistically, personally. His presence will add so much not just to us but to the city of Chicago. We need excitement in this business and substance, and he has both.”

Members of the storied orchestra clearly felt they had found a leader to match its stature.

“There are a few people on this planet who are really just giants of the conducting world, and he’s one of them,” said Rob Kassinger, a double bassist. “It’s just such a privilege to be able to look forward and say, ‘I’m going to get to work with this guy.’ ”

Mr. Muti turned down the music director’s job at the New York Philharmonic in 2000. Last year he agreed to take on the position of principal guest conductor, in which he was expected to spend six to eight weeks a season with the orchestra and lead it on tours, beginning in 2009 (although he now says that he did not agree to a specific number of weeks).

Speaking from his villa in Anif, Austria, near Salzburg, Mr. Muti said he would continue his association with the New York Philharmonic but suggested that his new schedule would reduce his time there. Zarin Mehta, the Philharmonic’s president, said Mr. Muti would not be back as a guest conductor once he took over the Chicago job. That, he said, made the Chicago announcement a “disappointment.” The Philharmonic musicians are known to be especially fond of playing for him.

Given the regular visits by major American orchestras to Carnegie Hall, the Philharmonic does not invite other music directors as guests, Mr. Mehta said, because “it confuses the image of an orchestra and music director.” While he said he was thrilled for the Chicago orchestra and for Mr. Muti, he added that the Philharmonic had decided a while ago to move in a “different direction, to go to a younger person who is going to spend more time with us.”

In July the Philharmonic appointed the American Alan Gilbert, 41, as its music director, to start in 2009. The Los Angeles Philharmonic similarly cast its lot with a young, non-European conductor, announcing that Gustavo Dudamel, 26, of Venezuela would be its next music director.

The Chicago Symphony began looking for a new music director nearly four years ago, after Mr. Barenboim announced he was leaving. Chicago’s orchestra management found an interim solution in two other high-profile conductors, naming Bernard Haitink principal conductor and Pierre Boulez conductor emeritus. The two men will continue in their positions at least until Mr. Muti’s arrival.

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