One of the world’s top conductors returns to a favorite concert hall — in Kansas City
Kansas City Star
Patrick Neas
February 17, 2023
The Harriman-Jewell Series first presented Riccardo Muti in 1986, when he conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra.
It was on that first trip to Kansas City that Muti visited the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, where an 18th century painting by Corrado Giaquinto caught his eye. Giaquinto was born in Molfetta, the same city where Muti spent the first 17 years of his life. Muti said that when he saw that painting, “I suddenly felt like I was at home.”
Muti will return to Kansas City to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Feb. 26 at Helzberg Hall. Violinist Julia Fischer will be the soloist in Schumann’s Violin Concerto, but the main work on the program is the “Manfred” Symphony, a turbulent masterpiece by Tchaikovsky.
This concert will be an emotional one, as this will be the last time Muti conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Kansas City before he steps down as its music director at the end of this season.