Almighty Muti

Mro Riccardo Muti, one of the world's foremost music figures, is a spectacle in himself as he rehearses with the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, which made its début at the Teatro Municpale di Piacenza on Sunday and will give its first overseas performance in Malta on July 9.

Relaxing in his armchair after rehearsals, Mro Muti, who rarely speaks to the press, tells The Times in an exclusive interview that "I am coming to Malta with a great desire to get to know this marvellous land and am also very pleased to be taking these youths (the musicians in the orchestra) out of Italy for the first time".

Although he has never visited the island, "I know its history, I've seen photographs and I am also a Commendatore dell'Ordine di Malta - something I am very proud of in that they formed the history of Europe".

Mro Muti is, therefore, also pleased to know that the venue for his concert, the Mediterranean Conference Centre, was built by the Order. "Should I come dressed as a knight?" jokes the man who is known for his rigidity.

Watching the world-class conductor in action - even during rehearsals, interruptions included - is an experience in itself, appealing even to someone who may not be particularly well-versed in classical music. Oozing charisma, together with extraordinary talent, the maestro alone, on his podium, takes centre stage in more ways than one.

Respected for his relentlessly high standards, for his defence of the purity of classical music, Mro Muti manages to transmit every emotion possible. He epitomises the concept of feeling the music and passing it on to his audience.

In fact, it is through him that the evocative sounds of his 85-piece orchestra - which he has handpicked from around Italy - would appear to emanate. He seems to be drawing the music out of them, directing it in electric waves through himself and out of his taut fingertips. It is not only his baton, but his whole body that keeps the tempo. Mro Muti dances, acts and sings the music: he crouches like a tiger, then levitates into a leap... pouncing into punctuating, frenetic, energetic jumps when the force of the music grows. His hands move softly and gracefully. Suddenly, they are dramatic and strong, accompanied by a trademark flick of his jet-black mane. The audience follows his movements, feeling him feeling the music, and the effect is breathtaking.

Such is his work-out during rehearsals that a patch of sweat starts to form on the back of his royal blue, billowing shirt. The simile 'fit as a fiddle' should have been coined for him and it's no surprise that his handshake is arm-wrenchingly firm.

Stop! A musician has made a mistake and the maestro's acute hearing immediately picks it up. He hangs his head, hands on hips. Perfect silence is required. Muti would detect the dropping of a pin in the auditorium, and it is no wonder that a recent survey for the Giornale delle Assicurazioni concluded that his hearing is valued at €11 million - slightly less than Formula 1 world champion Schumacher's forearm and Brazilian footballer Adriano's meniscus.

You can almost see the maestro's baton cutting through the concentration. But now that the rehearsals of the harder sections of the symphonies are over, the tension melts away. Mro Muti is back on his deserved pedestal, a towel round his neck, and the relationship between the 64-year-old conductor and the young musicians he is moulding, whose average age is 25, starts to emerge.

This is no autocrat - as he has been described. There are even interludes of comic relief and the orchestra erupts into laughter as Mro Muti slips in a humorous anecdote, complete with miming and mimicking to beef it up.

After all, the Piacenza-based Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, whose summer residence is Ravenna, is like his "child". It was "constructed through auditions two years ago, but it has been a thought I have had for many years, several years... 30 years now, not two," he says.

"Having had extraordinary teachers in Italy, as well as the opportunity to work with great soloists at a very young age - Raoul, Richter, Serkin, among others - and to conduct the Wiener Philharmonic and Berliner Philharmoniker also at a very young age, I felt that it was only fair that, one day, I would give to Italian youths the possibility to receive the experiences I had had in the world." His is almost a moral obligation.

"So, at a certain point in my life, I felt that the time had come. Carrying out the auditions was not easy. We specifically set up audition committees, composed of top Italian musicians and members of the great European orchestras to choose these youths, who then followed specialisation courses over the last two years and have now united to form this...

"This marks the start of their journey... They are talented, young musicians, who have a path to follow. They can remain in the orchestra up to the maximum age of 30, after which they have to leave. But they will do so with a technical baggage of knowledge of repertoire that would allow them to forge a career in other professional orchestras, with a wealth of experience that school does not provide."

These musicians, who he refers to as his "ragazzi", walk out of the theatre visibly drained, but content after six intense and successful hours of rehearsals of "extremely demanding pieces" just before their début.

They are overwhelmed and speechless when asked to comment about working with one of the world's greatest conductors of the past 30 years. "It is an honour. It is fantastic. He is one of our greatest and he works really well in that he has managed to get a whole load of musicians together to create an orchestra. It is no mean feat - motivating the musicians and making them want to play the way he does," says a young violinist, too modest to blow her trumpet on the fact that she was one of the chosen few. "That is all we can say. We play; we do not talk."

First violin, Domenico Pierini, also on a high after the rehearsals, considers himself to be "truly fortunate" to have known and worked with Mro Muti for several years. The former La Scala music director "makes real music, with his heart, with his head and with technique. He is exceptional at preparing us, as well as an extraordinary musician. He teaches us something new every day, every rehearsal, every concert. We are always being enriched.

"The orchestra is made up of top Italian talent and I am hoping it can take Italy's name overseas. Malta, the first stop, is a great opportunity and a great pleasure for us."

These musicians are the starlets that Mro Muti has selected and is clearly enjoying shaping into the stars of the future, equipping them with the necessary tools to, eventually, leave the nest and seek other pastures. They are following and understanding his every silent, but emphatic instruction. "I like your hairstyle," he tells the cellist with the floppy hair on his face because he is looking down. "But you should never take your eyes off me," he warns.

Mro Muti and the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, which is arousing curiosity everywhere, are being brought over to Malta by the company Renaissance Productions Ltd. Its directors, Anton Tabone and Amabile Zammit, whose aim is to organise major, quality, cultural events, managed to set up the necessary contacts with the Ravenna Festival, which it is collaborating with RPL.

While anticipating that there is more in store to brighten up Malta's cultural scene, Dr Tabone and Mr Zammit are currently concentrating their energies on the Muti concert - a complex logistical operation that is to mark the high point of Malta's cultural calendar. A plane is being chartered to transport about 100 people, musicians and their instruments, while the theatre acoustics have to be up to scratch.

Speaking about the "classical" programme for Malta, Mro Muti says "they are three composers who are very dear to me and very difficult for the orchestra and, therefore, a showcase of their technical, expressive and rhythmic capabilities and possibilities.

"The Cherubini Overture in G major was composed in about 1815 for the Philharmonic Society of London, and is one of Cherubini's only symphonic compositions. It is not an overture for opera. The manuscript is at the British Museum in London and I believe it has never been performed since its composition," he explains.

The programme also includes Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, Unfinished. "Schubert is a composer I also hold very much at heart... and Beethoven is obviously the giant of music." Mro Muti is conducting the latter's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 at the Malta concert.

"It was not the case to include contemporary composers in the first concert. An orchestra is formed through a knowledge of the classics and only after that is all the rest tackled. An orchestra that plays Beethoven and Schubert well can most surely play Stockhausen and Cage etc... The baby has to advance historically."

Mro Muti starts coughing and complains about the air conditioner. He has to leave, but before he goes, he answers the question: What is Muti without music?

"Muti senza musica... fa tante cose...," he chuckles, sotto voce, leaving the details up to the imagination.

The maestro takes his stately aura with him out of the theatre onto the streets. Walking regally across Piazza dei Cavalli, manuscripts in hand, he stops to give the occasional autograph, head always held high.

This exclusive interview was also made possible thanks to Air Malta.