Riccardo Muti taking over artistic leadership of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra after the departure of music director Daniel Barenboim in 2006 was anything but a sure thing. After all, the famed Italian conductor hadn’t even conducted the orchestra since 1975. And despite flirting with a possible union with the New York Philharmonic, Muti had made more than one seemingly firm statement that he was not interested in becoming music director again of an American orchestra.

But the leaders of the CSO were undeterred. They brought him to Chicago in the fall of 2007 for two weeks of concerts in Orchestra Hall followed by a two-week trek across Europe. Anybody who attended those concerts could sense the instant connection between maestro and musicians, and by the following May, he was named the orchestra’s new music director.