FAQ: But How Does Muti's GI Tract Affect Me?

By Alexander Hough in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 4, 2010 7:30PM

With new CSO music director Riccardo Muti boarding a plane for Milan this evening to consult with his doctors, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's October plans have been torn asunder. We try to sort out the ramifications below:

I already have tickets to a Muti concert. Am I screwed?
Calm down - you'll still see the CSO, you just might not see what you'd planned on seeing.

What about tomorrow's night's concert?
British early music conductor Harry Bicket will lead the final show of the last weekend's slate of music by Haydn and Mozart.

Muti was also supposed to conduct concerts this coming weekend, a terrific program of Beethoven's Third Symphony, Carlos Chávez's "Sinfonía India," and Richard Wagner's "Centennial Inauguration March" (a piece Wagner wrote for America's 100th birthday).
The only change is that Asher Fisch will conduct the concerts of October 7 - 9. The music will be the same.

I was going to go Pilsen this Saturday, October 9, to see Muti rehearse the Civic Orchestra. Should I still go?
Only if you have a hankering for tacos. The open rehearsal will be rescheduled for a date yet to be determined.

So I'm guessing the concerts Muti was supposed to lead from October 14 - 17 have been changed, too, right?
Yes, that's the bad news. The good news is that the new program is sweet: Pierre Boulez is going to conduct Mahler's Seventh Symphony.

Whoa, that's pretty last minute for such a huge piece.
Yes, but Boulez is the man.

But wasn't Esa-Pekka Salonen supposed to lead the CSO in Mahler's Seventh in March?
Yeah, that program will be changed, although there's no word as to what it'll be. If you need your Mahler fix, go next week.

Then what about the original program for October 14 - 17? Wasn't the orchestra going to premiere a piece by Bernard Rands that the CSO commissioned?
Excellent point. The Rands piece, "Danza Petrificada," will be played later this season at some point. Unfortunately, Luigi Cherubini's Requiem will be put off until a future season.

That means Muti and CSO program annotator Phillip Huscher won't be giving a lecture on the Cherubini piece before the concert on the 14th, right?
Indeed, but the lecture, part of the CSO's ClassicEncounter series, will still happen, except with Mahler as the subject.

And the free drinks and snacks?
Are you seriously asking that? Is that the only reason you would go?

Of course not, but it's a nice perk. I'm just curious.
Yes, there will still be free drinks and snacks accompanying the pre-concert talk.

So what exactly is "extreme gastric distress"?
That's a vague medical term that could mean a number of different things. It's apparently serious enough that Muti's heading to his home turf for medical attention. Hopefully it turns out to be nothing so we can use lots of bathroom humor when we write about his scheduled concerts in February, April, and May 2011.

And you hope it turns out to be nothing for his sake, too. Right?
That should go without saying. We wish him a swift recovery.