Muti deal shows it's never wise to settle

If there is a lesson to be learned from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's just-completed music director search, it's to never settle for less than the best.

That's how the CSO wound up with Riccardo Muti. The musicians of the orchestra wanted him, and their desire was carried right through the CSO's music director search committee, as well as Orchestra Association President Deborah R. Card.

So when Card arrived in Salzburg, Austria, early last week to "seal the deal," even she was holding her breath.

After all, in 2000, Muti had verbally agreed to take the reins of the New York Philharmonic following the retirement of Kurt Masur, only to change his mind at the last minute.

A lot of the CSO's good fortune had to do with timing. Back in 2000, Muti held one of the world's most prestigious operatic posts, music director of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Italy.

When his tenure there ended in April 2005 following an internal "power play" dispute with house management and musicians, Muti suddenly became available.

"When the New York Philharmonic talked to him at various times, he was still either involved, or shortly following, his La Scala time and he felt like he really needed space, a time away," said Card shortly after her return from Europe with signed contract firmly in hand. "My sense is that as more distance came between the time that he left La Scala in 2005, he felt a little bit more comfortable, and eager and energized about taking a big project on such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra."

The CSO chief executive emphasizes she didn't spring the offer on Muti last week, but that it was a culmination of months of negotiations.

"When we first started discussions with him in January 2005, we didn't imagine that he was somebody we could ever lure, but we did want him to come back to Chicago as a guest conductor," Card said. "I may have been one of the last people to talk to him about coming as a guest before all of the chaos at La Scala came to pass. Later that year, as I continued to visit with him, we were able to put projects together, invite him here as guest conductor, and he was able to do it because he had more time at that point."

That's when Muti made his famous statement, "I'm going to Chicago," which many in the music world assumed to mean that he'd agreed to become music director. But that was not true at the time.

"It was misinterpreted that I had invited him to be music director when in fact, all I had done was ask him to come and guest-conduct," Card said.

In reality, the serious dialog between Card and Muti took place over the following two years.

"We'd been talking a lot, and getting to know one another, along with him getting to know Chicago," she said. "I had been visiting him, seeing him in concerts at various places, and so when he did come to visit Chicago, he did know a lot about our orchestra and our institution at that time. So, it wasn't like he was just getting to know us when he came here."

Last fall's tour is believed to have been the clincher, as the CSO players formed a musical and personal b bond with the 66-year-old Italian maestro.

But like any marriage proposal, the trick was hearing the word "yes."

"I was not going to put him under any pressure, because I knew of all the other people coming up to him and saying 'Won't you come and conduct our orchestra?'" Card said. "So I was very careful not to put pressure on him until I had a sense that perhaps we could advance this a little bit further. I have to tell you, though, that until Monday (May 5), about 2 p.m. Salzburg time, I wasn't 100 percent sure until he had put his name on that piece of paper."

Muti will visit Chicago on June 2 for a brief "meet and greet" with the musicians, trustees and administrative staff. His lone podium appearance next season will be in mid-January, when he conducts one of his signature pieces, Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem Mass, with the orchestra and CSO Chorus.