Jan. 27--Riccardo Muti may be unhappy about the present state of the world but he exudes absolute confidence in the place of respect he and his Chicago Symphony Orchestra hold in that world.
Nor has he broken faith with his conviction that cultural warriors such as himself can make it a better world through cultural interchange and the healing power of classical music.
At both a news conference to announce the orchestra's 125th season on Monday and in an interview with the Tribune several days earlier, the 73-year-old Italian maestro made no secret of his desire to have his orchestra become the first U.S. orchestra to perform in Cuba, now that American-Cuban relations are in the process of thawing.
"One of the first things we should do is go there with the Chicago Symphony and play a concert," he told me, likening this moment in time to the opening of cultural floodgates between the two superpowers following President Richard Nixon's historic visit to the People's Republic of China in 1972.
"The first thing Nixon did after that was to send the Philadelphia Orchestra and Eugene Ormandy over to China. I know that to send the CSO to Cuba will require time and effort. But, as someone the people of Chicago know very well once said, 'Yes, we can.' We have the opportunity to create a new world of greater mutual understanding, in Cuba and everywhere we visit."
Having just wrapped up two weeks of CSO subscription concerts with the CSO that included two rarely heard symphonies by one of Muti's pet composers, Alexander Scriabin, the music director and his musicians are taking these works to New York's Carnegie Hall for three concerts, beginning Friday night. The Friday tour opener is to be broadcast live by WFMT-FM 98.7 as part of a daylong tribute to Muti.
(The heavy snowfall that descended on New York on Monday canceled many performances there but had not affected the CSO's travel schedule as of press time.)
On Monday evening here, Muti worked on Scriabin's First Symphony in an open rehearsal with the young musicians of the CSO's training orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. At the media event earlier in the day, he introduced the orchestra's new Mead Composers-in-Residence, Elizabeth Ogonek and Samuel C. Adams, "son of famed American composer John Adams."
Muti selected the two young American composers, he explained, not on the basis of any recommendations from friends or colleagues but because their music made the most lasting impression on him out of the raft of new scores that cross his desk. "I chose them through their scores before I saw their faces," he said.
The maestro tends to sound evasive whenever critics fault him for not playing more American music. "It's not enough to ask, 'What about American music?' I think it's more important to ask, 'What about contemporary music?' We should not close ourselves in a room," he told me.
Given next season's heavy emphasis on retrospective programming -- nearly 30 works that had their U.S. or world premieres by the CSO will be brought back -- there won't be room for much American or contemporary music, however. And Muti's ambiguous stance on new music does not suggest there will be a great deal more of it under his watch.
"The world of new music is in a big crisis," he declared. "Thousands of composers around the world are writing music, and that music is performed one or two times, then is forgotten. We performers feel we have done our duty. After that, who remembers that music?
"The problem with new music is that the distance between composers and the public has become enormous. Composers don't write for 'human' orchestras anymore. In Verdi's times, people sang his tunes after just hearing them."
Muti's solution: "I believe that with all the world cultures contributing new scores, a new way of writing music -- a synthesis -- eventually will emerge. For now, the new composers are a little bit too far away from the needs of the public."
With both a new CSO Association president, Jeff Alexander, installed and a new vice president for artistic planning, Cristina Rocca, starting in March, Muti expressed satisfaction that he has top professionals at his side to serve the institution in the seasons that remain for him in Chicago. (His contract will expire in August 2020.)
"These next five years are, for me, even more important than the previous five years," he said. "We are turning a page. This is not to criticize the past -- it is to face the future of this orchestra with great hope."
Despite all the recent comings and goings in the CSO woodwind section, Muti said he's optimistic the changes will not disturb the orchestra's fine artistic equilibrium.
"Only a few days ago we hired a wonderful new principal bassoon from the Atlanta Symphony (Keith Buncke)," he said. (Since a contract has yet to be finalized, the CSO has refrained from announcing Buncke's appointment.) "We have had some great players leave the CSO, but there are always great new players coming in. Nobody is irreplaceable. So I am not worried. The playing level of this orchestra will remain very, very high."
One thing that does worry Muti, he said, is the relative lack of electronic media exposure the orchestra has received in recent years. That is partly due to the prohibitive cost of making audio and video recordings in the U.S. But it also relates to the CSO administration's not going after sponsorship aggressively enough, in his view.
"I want the Chicago Symphony to be competitive with the great European orchestras -- the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic," Muti declared at the news conference. He appeared to be addressing his remarks directly at Alexander (who was seated next to him on the dais), as if to challenge the new president to go after the big bucks needed to get the CSO -- ironically, one of the world's most recorded orchestras -- back in the recording business.
Both the Vienna and Berlin ensembles are able to maintain a significant profile in the classical music marketplace partly because they are able to maintain a significant presence on CD and home video and over the Internet. Surely the CSO, which is their artistic equal if not superior, can do the same, Muti suggested. "I don't want to see the Berlin Philharmonic 'live' and the Chicago Symphony dead," Muti said, alluding to the elite German orchestra's innovative streaming platform, Digital Concert Hall, unveiled in 2008.
One pet Muti project that will be recorded if he has any say in the matter is the concert version of Verdi's "Falstaff" he and the CSO announced for April 2016 as the third opera of their trilogy of Verdi/Shakespeare stage works.
"It's important to bring a new public to our concerts here and to improve the quality of life for people in Chicago through music," Muti said to wrap up the news conference. "But it is absolutely vital we bring our music to the rest of the world, as well. If we don't, the Chicago Symphony will only be -- I hate to use the word provincial -- let's say the orchestra will be only local. We live in a great city, but Chicago's potential is much bigger than what it is achieving in the world."
Leonard Chausow 1929-2015
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra family is mourning the passing of Leonard Chausow, the admired, Chicago-born cellist who was a member of the CSO cello section from 1956 until his retirement in 2003. Chausow died Saturday in Highland Park, at 86.
He joined the orchestra at music director Fritz Reiner's invitation and was promoted to assistant principal cello by Jean Martinon in 1964. He served in that capacity until 1993 when he became assistant principal emeritus, a position he held until he retired.
Chausow taught at Roosevelt University, coached Civic Orchestra cellists and gave master classes here and across the nation.
CSO cellist Gary Stucka, a former student of Chausow's, remembers him as an inspirational teacher and a pillar of the orchestra's cello section.
"In his prime, Lenny had a huge, beautiful sound that carried to the last row of the hall," Stucka said. "His playing was always impassioned and full of conviction. I treasured his expertise in the orchestral repertory, gained in part from his years as Frank Miller's stand partner. I loved when he would remember and share a special bowing or fingering in some of the more challenging orchestral passages. I will miss him terribly."
jvonrhein@tribpost.com
Twitter @jvonrhein
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