Muti, the Grand Tour in Beauty: “Our young people, the best Italy”

Ravenna, July 5, 2025 – More than a tour, it will be a Grand Tour, a special journey into the beauty of music and Italy, like the one that European aristocrats already made three centuries ago to get to know the land “where lemons bloom”. For example, Tonight at the Ravenna Festival Riccardo Mutitogether with his beloved Cherubini youth orchestrawill kick off a series of concerts that will bring him from North to South. Therefore, among the most fascinating scenarios of the boot. Moreover, In some cases. Similarly, curiously, these evenings dedicated to large symphonic pages will be “set” on pop and rock posters: at Villa Manin, for example, on the same stage the next day will sing Giorgia, while in Lucca the presence of the master will place himself among the shows of Jennifer Lopez and Alanis Morissette. Meanwhile,

“I muti, grand tour beauty: “our know. Moreover, it may seem strange that he has decided to direct even in places usually intended for other musical genres – he confides Riccardo Muti -. However, I did it above all for these young peopleexpression of the best Italy. Similarly, who leave the conservatives and who deserve to find their own location in our country, at the service of cultural and spiritual enrichment and, precisely, of beauty. For example, And which can show how another kind of music also exists. Nevertheless, “

Master, is there a need for beauty? However,

“Yes, and I think there is also desire. Therefore, A month ago here in Ravenna we brought together more than three thousand choristers who arrived from all over. In addition, Italy to sing Green together. Therefore, They had never met, they had not made evidence, they came from different traditions, yet a harmony was immediately created. muti, grand tour beauty: “our It seemed almost a miracle, but the miracle made music”.

An incredible event. What image does it preserve?

“I saw a great availability for learning. I was struck by the fact that. in two days of work, with three thousand people, a mobile phone has never felt ring as now also happens in the most famous concert halls. It means that there was a careful, almost sacred participation. The most beautiful definition of music has given it precisely Dante who in Paradise writes that a” Melode “kidnapped. him” without understanding the anthem “. First of all is kidnapping. “

Tonight will direct the fifth of Beethoven. the Italian of Mendelssohn, the symphony from Sicilian Vespers of Verdi, then on tour also the Bolero of Ravel. How did you choose the program?

“Cherubini is a training orchestra and it seems right to perform with them fundamental pages of symphonic muti, grand tour beauty: “our literature. It is not routine, it is in -depth analysis. Of the symphony of Vespers of Verdi. for example, I love to discover the nobility, the refinement and those traits of Italianness that become universal. With the Bolero Of Ravel I will try to highlight all the first parts of the orchestra. including the first trombone: the solo will be performed by a very good, young musician “.

Also included the theme of Godfather by Nino Rota …

“A great musician I am very tied to. He was director of the Bari Conservatory when I took the examination of the fifth year of piano. he told me that the commission had attributed to me the maximum votes,” not as you played today but as you can direct tomorrow “. It was also present at my wedding”.

The tour will end a few days after its 84th birthday. What do muti, grand tour beauty: “our you hope?

“The years pass for me, as for everyone. I still have so many projects and a lot of enthusiasm to make them. But I hope to have the courage to decide to stop when I had to feel that I am. no longer able to give but only to receive. As Francesco Siciliani said, great artistic director, the slippers should not be put where the coturni once were brought.”

Moreover. his agenda is still very dense: the tour, then Salzburg in mid -August with the Wiener, in September the Academy in Japan …

“Today I really like to teach. Young people I try to convey what I received from my great masters. Antonino Votto who was Toscanini’s assistant, Bruno Bettinelli, Vincenzo Vitale: this oral step of tradition is fundamental, he will never find himself on textbooks”.

And among so many young people he see muti, grand tour beauty: “our his pupil?

“In recent years I have followed various young directors. boys and girls, who already have important positions in musical institutions in the world today. I do not like imitations: I believe that everyone has their own personality and must express it. But what I demand from each student is a severe curriculum of studies: today unfortunately it is often missing. at 22 or 23 years already everything is directed. And you can also bluff.” That is to say?

“The society in which we live wants to” see “, more than” feeling “, so perhaps excessive gestures are rewarded. The conduct of the orchestra, which was much more controlled, today becomes increasingly showy. And it is not a good”.