The good news is that (contrary to what we fancied) Italian maestro Riccardo Muti isn't actually a Schwarzenegger-esque cyborg sent from the future to save classical music from mediocre interpretations and tempi-beating charlatans. The bad news is that he's only human. Over the weekend after suffering from "extreme gastric distress" (or as the Italian press calls it, "forti disturbi gastrici"), Muti's been forced to cancel the next couple weeks of performances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and fly back to Milan (he arrives tomorrow morning) to consort with his team of Milanese health specialists. Harry Bicket, Asher Fisch, and Pierre Boulez will step in the next two weeks for the duration of Muti's CSO Fall commitments (three concerts total).
At the end of this month, Muti's scheduled to take his Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini on tour in Austria (culminating in a concert at Vienna's Musikverein) and then back to Italy to open Teatro dell'Opera di Roma's new season with Rossini's Moïse et Pharaon on December 3.
Our biggest and healthiest wishes for a speedy recovery, Maestro!