In Wednesday’s (10/1) Chicago Tribune, John von Rhein speaks to Riccardo Muti, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra about “the recent shift of administrative command at Symphony Center and, crucially, what impact the arrival in January of the new CSO Association president, Jeff Alexander of the Vancouver Symphony, is likely to have on Muti’s power and prerogatives as music director…. ‘Muti said he cannot predict how his working relationship with Alexander will differ from his relationship with Rutter, if it differs at all. Thus far, he said, his conversations with the new president have been productive. ‘Alexander is a musician, a horn player…. He believes in some of my ideas to enlarge our commitment to the people of Chicago.’ If there is such a thing as ‘Muti’s way,’ the CSO’s artistic supremo declared, it is to make the Chicago Symphony an even more prominent emblem of American culture at its finest on the world stage.” With respect to his recent resignation from his post at Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera, Muti says, “Chicago is my place now. I will not accept any titles in any opera houses anymore, absolutely not. So I will have more time possibly for Chicago, and certainly more energy.”
Posted October 2, 2014
