Just before the opening of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s seventieth season, our sixth music director Fritz Reiner suffered a heart attack on October 7, 1960. He had been scheduled to conduct the first four weeks of concerts, but his recuperation forced the cancellation of his remaining appearances for the calendar year.

One of the replacement conductors was Antonino Votto, who would soon become Riccardo Muti‘s conducting teacher at the Milan Conservatory.

Read more: Antonino Votto: the teacher to the maestro.