Muti reveals lineup for 1st CSO season in new role
Conductor Riccardo Muti will make his debut as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with a free concert at Millennium Park, and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter will play with the CSO for the first time in 20 years, the CSO announced Thursday.
Muti and CSO Association president Deborah F. Rutter appeared Thursday at Symphony Center to announce the orchestra's 2010-11 season, which runs from September to June.
Muti, known in his native Italy for his musical outreach programs, plans to begin his outreach efforts in Chicago by conducting an open rehearsal of works by Mexican composers in Chicago's predominantly Mexican-American Pilsen neighborhood. The first half of the CSO season will be studded by Mexican-composed pieces.
CSO audiences also will hear the world premieres of commissioned works by Osvaldo Golijov, Bernard Rands, Mark-Anthony Tunage, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Chicago favorite Bernard Haitink's tenure as the orchestra's principal conductor ends in June, but Muti and Rutter announced Thursday that Haitink would return in spring 2011 for several weeks of concerts highlighting the Germanic repertoire.
And although conductor emeritus Pierre Boulez is on sabbatical most of the season, he will return for two weeks of concerts in November and December.
Following the free Millennium Park concert Sept. 19, Muti's first regular-subscription CSO concert will feature the Hector Berlioz favorite "Symphonie fantastique," coupled with its less-familiar companion piece, "Lelio: The Return to Life." French film star Gerard Depardieu will be the narrator for "Lelio."
More star power will arrive Oct. 2 with Mutter's appearance. She is the featured soloist at the annual Symphony Ball, where Muti will conduct.
Another highlight of Muti's first season will be a concert version of Verdi's "Otello," to be performed in Chicago and at New York's Carnegie Hall during an April visit that will also feature performances of the Berlioz works.
Muti's first residency with the CSO will be split into several segments. He will conduct fall concerts from Sept. 19 to Oct. 17, return for a winter series Feb. 3-19, and then do two sequences of spring concerts between April 7 and May 14. The New York tour will be April 15-17.
Muti first came to the attention of critics in 1967 when he won a major competition for conductors in Milan. He soon was appointed to key positions in Florence and London. He has been a regular guest conductor at the Salzburg Festival since 1971, and is regarded by many critics as an outstanding Mozart interpreter.
The Naples, Italy, native first led the CSO as a guest conductor at the Ravinia Festival in 1973, but didn't return to Chicago until 2007, when he led the orchestra in a sold-out opening night gala for the 2007-2008 season and later a triumphant European tour.