A son of Naples, Riccardo Muti is presently the Music Director of La Scala, Milan. Muti was student in Milan and studied conducting there with Anotino Votto, one of the great Italian maestri of Toscanini's generation.

Muti's career has been evenly divided between opera and concert work from the earliest days of his career. His first major appointment came in 1969 at the Maggio Musicale in Florence. Soon thereafter he succeeded Otto Klemperer as the Chief Conductor of London's New Philharmonia Orchestra and in 1975 he became Principal Guest Conductor (and eventually Music Director) of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

He began recording fairly early in his career and his very first opera discs were praised for their energy, drive and scrupulous attention to textual detail, leading to the inevitable comparisons with his idol Toscanini.

Riccardo Muti has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with the Vienna Phiulharmonic with whom he has recorded often. His recordings on Universal also include orchestral and operatic repertoire on Philips with the Philadelphians and Luciano Pavarotti.