On December 12th Pope Leo XIV will deliver to the master Riccardo Muti the Ratzinger Prize 2025, which is awarded every year to eminent personalities in the field of culture and art.
For the occasion, Muti will conduct the speech at 6pm in the Paul VI Hall Mass for the Coronation of Charlescomposed of Luigi Cherubini in 1825 and performed for the first time in the same year in Reims Cathedral. The sacred composition will be performed byLuigi Cherubini Youth Orchestrafounded by Muti himself. Accompanying the orchestra is Choir of the Siena Cathedral “Guido Chigi Saracini”.
Pope Leo wishes the award ceremony and the concert to also be an opportunity to raise awareness, commitment and solidarity regarding the educational emergency, with particular attention to school inclusion. In the world there are 60 million children and young people who are not included in any schooling process while 160 million minors do not access secondary education.
Riccardo Muti had a relationship of friendship and mutual respect with Pope Benedict XVI, a great admirer of his art. “Maestro Muti’s sensitivity for sacred music is well known, as is his commitment to making this rich repertoire which expresses the faith of the Church in music better known,” said Benedict XVI on 11 May 2012, at the end of the concert offered to the pontiff by the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano. On that occasion Muti, leading the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, performed the Magnificat by Antonio Vivaldi and two gods Four Sacred Pieces by Giuseppe Verdi, lo Stabat Mater and the Te Deum.
It should also be remembered that Muti is Director Emeritus for life of the Chicago Symphony Orchestraone of the most prestigious orchestras in North America and the world, founded in 1891 in the city where Robert Francis Prevost was born in 1955.
The concert is organized by Pontifical Foundation “Gravissimum Educationis – Culture for education“, with the patronage of the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See. Principal supporter of the concert is the “Galileo Foundation”. Participation in the Concert of the Siena Cathedral Choir “Guido Chigi Saracini” and the “Luigi Cherubini” Youth Orchestra is made possible by the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Italian Republic, Cassa di Ravenna spa and the Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna Foundation.
