Riccardo Muti is having a roller coaster of a year. Doubtless Muti has a very generous side too, but he demonstrated yet again this week what a hothead he can be. I almost feel sorry for him, almost... To be honest, he's a charter member of my 'pantheon of the overrated.' His virtuosity is beyond doubt, the tales of his musicianship are a mile long, but in my opinion the general narcissism of his character comes out in his musicmaking, which is usually either maniacally tense and high strung or pompous and boring (ducks). Sometimes, the high drama was appropriate, and when it was, it was absolutely thrilling, but there were moments in Mozart when he achieved the singular distinction of brutalizing the music while barely being able to hear anything but the strings... and moments when his pompous conception of Beethoven can put us to sleep.
For all that one can strike at Muti about, he does have extraordinary virtues. He clearly understands the operatic tradition in a manner that even Milanese like Abbado and Chailly don't. His temperament is obviously operatic down to the very fibers of his soul, and it's a shame he never learned to work as a collaborator with singers, because he obviously has the most incredible sense of drama. A conductor like Ettore Panizza shows that it is possible to simultaneously follow singers and simultaneously surround their voices with inflammatory drama.
Muti is to the orchestra what Cziffra was to the keyboard - at his best in music that can be played as showpieces: Berlioz, Liszt, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Ravel, Pictures at an Exhibition, Scheherazade, early Stravinsky. And yet, like a true archetypal Italian, against all that sensual virtuosity there are all kinds o sacred works in which he really understands the existential stakes: an amazing Vivaldi Gloria, a Mozart Requiem that works in spite of the extreme luxury of the sound he gets, and of course, his 5234524324 Verdi Requiems...
So then there's the Italian opera... It is both great and terrible. The sense of drama is unmatched until you go back as far as de Sabata and Panizza. And yet, it's all Muti, Muti, MUTI. Muti consistently got the world's best singers, but what singer can possibly give their best amid that cyclone? When you recall a Muti opera recording, you recall hundreds of orchestral details, but it's almost impossible to remember which singers are on them. He permits them no interpolations, no characterization, yet allows himself unlimited liberties with tempo, rubato, and dynamics. Most of them are essential recordings to hear, so dramatic it's as though Furtwangler or Mengelberg is on the podium, but they're *essential with an asterisk, because Muti never really seems to understand that opera, particularly Italian opera, is about singing. Perhaps he's at his very best in Verdi's earlier works, like Atilla, when Verdi's drama is consistently at its boiling point and he can simultaenously bring out the musical virtues which singer interventions doubtlessly did their part to cover up.
But then there are those few pieces in which Muti truly seems like a master among masters who can go deep: Mendelssohn's Italian, Brahms 2, Mozart Linz and Prague, Dvorak 5. On special occasions, there are symphonic works Muti really understands all the way down. And above all, there's Schumann. There is something bipolar about Muti's musicmaking, so full of highs and lows, that makes me wonder if he understands Schumann on a level we don't even know about. I sometimes wonder why such an ultradramatic conductor like Muti ignores Mahler, perhaps it's because the highs and lows of Mahler's neurosis strike a little too close to home.
One of the odd features of his recent performances was that as he mellowed, the high strung temperament which made him compelling was gone. His music making is now so low-key that it seems almost Giulini-like, but whereas Giulini's or Colin Davis could leaven their slowness with humanity and spirituality, it just sounds with Muti like padded luxury. I'm almost gladdened to see that Muti still has some fight left in him. Perhaps he can get some of the old fiamma back.
So here is one of Muti's finest achievements: Schumann in Vienna, one of great Schumann cycles ever set down (his Philharmonia cycle is also up there). Would that Muti always conducted with this taste, understanding, and emotional generosity. This is great musicianship. It's not too late for Muti to exhibit more achievements like this. He still looks barely 65, my hunch is we'll have him around for at least another 15 years. Hopefully, like Blomstedt, he will have a 'late late style' which can still put him near the very top of the pantheon where his gifts so obviously deserve to put him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szDVw4CbcGE
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