Riccardo Muti conducts in Sarajevo

Riccardo Muti headlined a great concert in Sarajevo  (7/14) at the old Olympic stadium. Muti -- born in Naples and famous for his interpretations of Verdi and Mozart -- conducted the famous 1997 concert in Sarajevo after the war. This time here they gave him the key to the city. 

He deserved it for the concert he delivered this night alone. It was good enough to make even the punishing seats and hideous stairway climb into the balcony of the Zetra arena bearable.

The music was all so sad and wistful and when the Children's Choir of Srebrenica walked onstage people broke into applause. The concert was for the cause of "Putevi prijateljstva" or pathways to peace and children were way more than tolerated this night. From the balcony we could see kids running up and down the isles and doing somersaults in the back area of Zetra where the soccer field was open and not covered with chairs or stage.

I love replaying music I've enjoyed in a concert on the computer afterward, endlessly. Thank YouTube:

The program:

Brahms Rhapsody 53 for contralto, male chorus and orchestra (OK, this version has Marion Anderson singing the contralto part so it might be slightly better than what I heard in Sarajevo)   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAvX_UwmQzQ

Beethoven's No 3 -- the Eroica (This is just part one -- but listen to all of it if you like it, which you will)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFltqVS8d9I

And the Nabucco Chorus: Verdi's fabulous Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves: 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0EAL3vXZrM

(The photo is from Muti's website)