Riccardo Muti to miss February CSO concerts after hip operation

A mishap described as a “minor accident” has broken Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Riccardo Muti’s recent streak of good health and forced him to withdraw from his February concerts in Chicago.

The orchestra said the maestro, 74, is recovering from a hip operation that followed the accident. No further details were furnished. The news agency ANSA reported that Muti underwent the surgery in the Italian city of Ravenna after a fall at home.

The biggest casualty in the CSO schedule is the Holy Name Cathedral concert scheduled for Feb. 19, now postponed to an undetermined date.

Guest conductors will be announced later for CSO concerts Feb. 11-20.

It’s not the first time health woes have pulled Muti off the podium. He withdrew from concerts after suffering abdominal pain in October 2010, collapsing during rehearsal and breaking his jaw in February 2011 and suffering first the flu and then hernia issues in January 2013.