Mumbai, Aug 24 (PTI) A proud Indian passport holder, based in the US, honorary citizen of Florence and Tel Aviv and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s Music Director for Life. If ever there is a global citizen, it will have to be Zubin Mehta who hopes to take his music to the West Bank and Gaza.
After all, “people need music”, the celebrated conductor told PTI in an interview. As one of the bloodiest episodes of conflict in recent history unfolds in the region, Mehta rewound to January 1982 when he led the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to a tobacco field in south Lebanon, conducting before an audience of mostly Lebanese people who stormed the makeshift stage and embraced the musicians.
It was peacetime. “We played in South Lebanon for the Arabs there, and they stormed the stage and hugged the musicians. After that again Israel made the mistake of invading Lebanon and their relations broke apart.” “Do not underestimate the power of art and music. It brings people together,” the Mumbai-born Mehta told PTI after a concert at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) here.
Two months ago, the 88-year-old was in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv to conduct 14 concerts.
“Thank god, it (the war) hasn’t affected the musicians, or the public. I was there two months ago and I had 14 concerts, all full. People need music. All kinds of music, also our classical music.” “And I am going again next March… inshallah in peacetime,” Mehta, who was only 20 when he conducted his first orchestra and is as passionate almost seven decades later, added.
He would also like to do concerts in the West Bank and Gaza. “I really hope so. The musicians would love to do it.” Unhesitating in articulating his views on issues, however polarising they might be, Mehta termed the ongoing war in Gaza “tragic”.
He said 90 per cent of Israel is against its government, “demonstrating all the time…” “It’s the 10 per cent religious minority that is backing the government. And they are absolutely unpopular and hopefully they will be dissolved very soon. I hope so.” Mehta, who is in the city of his birth to conduct the NCPA’s Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) for its Autumn 2024 season with the compositions of Johann Strauss II and Richard Strauss, had courted controversy in 2013 when he took the Bavarian State Orchestra to Kashmir’s 17th century Shalimar Gardens.
The concert was opposed by Kashmiri separatists and human rights activists who called for a day-long strike in Srinagar and other parts of the Valley to register their protest. However, Mehta led the orchestra to perform the likes of Beethoven, Haydn and Tchaikovsky.
“We are not politicians. We cannot change boundaries but we can start a process of healing,” he had told NDTV then.
Eleven years later, Mehta, one of the most recognised names in the world of Western classical music, still believes as firmly in the universality and healing power of music.
Born in 1936 into a Parsi family, Mehta grew up surrounded with Western classical music, thanks to his father Mehli Mehta who “brainwashed” him to follow the music.
The environment at home was musical with Mehli Mehta being an accomplished violinist who would spend hours rehearsing at home. The young Zubin absorbed the sounds of Beethoven and Brahms and a lot more.
“My father brought me up brainwashed. From the beginning, he was practising, he was rehearsing at home, I was sitting and listening, I was absorbing it all and then at the age of 18 I went to Vienna and I absorbed everything I could,” Mehta recalled.
In 1954, he moved from Bombay to Vienna, a place that became the cornerstone in his celebrated career, to start his education in music at the state music academy.
“Really, Vienna is today the centre (of global music)… also in those days all the greatest conductors performed in Vienna and the opera house is wonderful with the singers of the world. So I was at every rehearsal possible when not studying,” Mehta said.
In his career, Mehta has conducted many orchestras, including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vienna and Berlin.
Through his peripatetic life, he has been the Indian holding his Indianness close to his heart.
He continues to be a passport-holding and Gujarati speaking citizen of India, the two things he said he won’t think of changing.
“I don’t change my language. I don’t change my passport… I have never given it a thought. Sometimes it’s difficult.” “I still speak Gujarati whenever I can. Not many of my friends do, even my brother. I speak to him in Gujarati, he replies in English. But I used to speak to my parents almost daily and my parents only spoke Gujarati to me.” Married to former American actor Nancy Kovack, his green card was recently updated till 2034.
“I have what they call in America a green card, which is proof of residence. And this time I waited a long time and I got it recently and they gave me a green card till 2034,” Mehta said.
“So I told my wife, just throw this in my grave with me,” he added with a glint in his eyes and a smile on his face.
This is the second time that Mehta has conducted the SOI, touted to be the country’s only professional orchestra. He conducted a series of concerts with the SOI last year in August.
“Last year was a surprise, I was not expecting such a high standard of individual musicians and then the complete orchestra… That’s why I agreed to come back and I have already agreed to come back next year,” he said.
On August 17 and 18, Mehta conducted a number of compositions by Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, including Overture to “Die Fledermaus”, “Annen-polka” Op. 117, “Wiener Blut”, Op. 354 (“Viennese Blood”), and Kaiser-Walzer, Op. 437 (“Emperor Waltz”).
“It was a difficult programme, Johann Strauss, because it has a lot of fluctuations of tempo, of speed, of what we call in musical language rubato and they (musicians) were very attentive at rehearsals…,” Mehta said commending the SOI musicians.
This weekend, on August 24-25, he will conduct German composer Richard Strauss’ tone poems “Don Juan” and “Ein Heldenleben”, and the “Four Last Songs” at the NCPA.
Incidentally, it was the tone poems and Brahms’ four symphonies that inspired Mehta to consider becoming a conductor.
“I accomplished what I originally set out to do. But conducting is an experience and the experience that I have had since I was 20 years old and today 88…,” Mehta said.
“I have had a very, very good time. I have been treated well by most orchestras and I have experienced no bias on their part at all.” PTI MAH MIN MIN
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