Riccardo Muti
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
“A vivid portrait of life at the top of a podium heap…[a] fascinating memoir – a must-read for all who would gain insights into what makes a dedicated and complicated man of music tick.”--Chicago Tribune
From a small town in the south of Italy to the pinnacle of the classical music world, Riccardo Muti has enthralled audiences across the globe as conductor of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and opera houses. Now, after fifty years on the podium, he reflects on an extraordinary career, working with the great artists of his generation. Here, for the first time, he shares the personal anecdotes and revelations of a remarkable life in music.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this pieced-together though enjoyable memoir, Italian-born Muti, the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, recalls receiving at age seven a violin as a Saint Nick's Day gift from his father, who was a music lover and urged all his children to study music in one form or another. Although uninterested at first in learning to play, Muti picked up the instrument after a few months and discovered the magic that has fostered his lifelong love of music. By the time he was 13, Muti was directing a group of older musicians from his hometown of Molfetta in a caroling competition that his group won. He required such rigorous rehearsals that his group mounted an unsuccessful mutiny; in that moment he discovered his deep conviction that music no matter how simple had to be blessed with the utmost precision and played with absolute moral devotion. Muti characterizes the life of the professional musician as a solitary pursuit, like a mission or a sacrifice; in spite of the many people he meets in his travels, the musician is alone in his quest for the ideal interpretation, alone before the score, alone in bringing it from page to orchestra and from orchestra to audience. Although woodenly translated, Muti composes a libretto out of the many moments in his sonorous life, gracefully conducting us on a musical journey from his childhood through his years of composing and conducting in Florence, London, Philadelphia, and Chicago.
