Muti Stops Concert To Lecture Audience

When Chicago Symphony audience members clapped between movements at a concert Wednesday, conductor Riccardo Muti turned to the audience and lectured them about how to listen. “Some audience members no doubt found his comments condescending, but he made a valid point without bullying the newbies; and it seemed to me that everyone then listened to the finale with a greater understanding of how art and reality mingled so tragically at the end of the Russian composer’s life.”