ANDREW PATNER: One thing that is new for you quite recently is that a
few months ago you for the first time conducted the German Requiem of
Brahms. I'm curious, now, with [this and Verdi's Requiem] kind of
back-to-back, if you see any illumination of one by the other.

RICCARDO MUTI: The two pieces are completely different. And they
represent two different cultures. And definitely two different
approaches to death.

PATNER: One is the pastor, the shepherd welcoming the sheep back, and
the other—

MUTI: Is a fight.

PATNER: It's a fight!

MUTI: As I said to the orchestra, to the chorus, to understand the Verdi
Requiem, you have to visit the cemeteries of the big Italian cities. The
cemetery of Napoli, cemetery of Rome. The big one. The old ones. They
are so scary that even the dead people want to get out. They don't want
to stay there. And they are terrifying cities. They are città della
morte, cities of the dead. It's not, this is a garden where there are
the stones and you bring the flowers and you bring your dog, or you can
sit and have a picnic. You really enter — it's like Dante in the Divina
Commedia, when he started saying, "Per me si va nella città dolente, per
me si va ne l'etterno dolore, per me si va tra la perduta gente." This
is the beginning of the Inferno of Dante. Through me, through this door,
"Per me si va nella città dolente." In the city full of pains. "Per me
si va ne l'etterno dolore" — Through me you go in the eternal dolore.
It's pain.

PATNER: Sadness. Sorrow.

MUTI: Sorrow. "Per me si va tra la perduta gente." Through me you go
among the lost people. This is the Inferno of Dante. And the Verdi
Requiem is the fear of the inferno. The color is extremely dark. But
Verdi, he's searching for light. In fact at the beginning, just F-sharp
in a chord creates the illumination of the entire atmosphere. Verdi
could create an entire dramatic situation with one chord. The orchestra
was laughing because I said "one goes from a B-flat chord," the
beginning of "lux aeterna" there is a B-flat chord, and then suddenly
the next bar, a D major chord, without any modulation. And that D major
chord with this F-sharp comes when the mezzo-soprano says, "Lux æterna,"
the eternal light. So I said, "With one change of harmony, Verdi creates
an entire different world." And to make them laugh I said, "Wagner needs
three hours." With all the love and respect for Wagner of course.

WFMT broadcast, January 14, 2009

from "A Portrait in 4 Movements: The Chicago Symphony under Barenboim,
Boulez, Haitink, and Muti" by Andrew Patner