Riccardo Muti, 'a prisoner' in Italy, on the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during the coronavirus pandemic: 'We need to save the orchestra'

In mid-August, Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in three performances of a monumental work: Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, complete with vocal soloists and chorus.

The orchestra members wore masks as they entered the stage but removed them when seated, the players taking their usual positions. Choristers were separated from orchestra by plastic glass, but when it came time for them to sing, they stood up en masse and thundered the "Ode to Joy."

Nearly 4,000 people attended those Salzburg Festival concerts.

With the coronavirus pandemic still rampaging across the United States, nothing even close to that is yet being imagined for the Chicago ensemble Muti has led to global acclaim since 2010.

"We need to save the orchestra - an orchestra that has been without playing together for almost one year,"