Riccardo Muti withdraws from Grafenegg Festival finale

Riccardo Muti will not conduct the closing concert of the Grafenegg Festival on September 6, ORF reports. The 85-year-old Italian will undergo a necessary medical procedure on doctors’ advice, according to a statement issued Thursday.

Rudolf Buchbinder will lead the concert from the piano under a revised programme. Domenico Cimarosa’s overture to the opera “Il matrimonio segreto” will be replaced in the first half by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major, K. 467.

After the interval, Buchbinder and the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini will perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466.

The Grafenegg Festival opened on August 14 with Beethoven and Orff. The Philharmonia Orchestra London performed at the opening concert on the Wolkenturm open-air stage in the Schlosspark under Romanian conductor Cristian Macelaru.