Randolph Magri-Overend

CONTEMPORARY CONDUCTORS : ZUBIN MEHTA

There is something wholesomely endearing about Zubin Mehta.  If you had a favourite uncle you’d want him to look like him.  He has the demeanour of a well-travelled person, full of bon-homie and joie-de-vivre, with perhaps a touch of the imp about him.  A mate.

As if that is not enough Mehta also loves cricket.  In fact when he initially agreed to conduct the Australian World Orchestra in December 2013 he did so on the understanding that he would spend what was left of his non-musical activities watching the Ashes series.  As it turned out, his best plans were spoilt by the decision of Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia, Spain to schedule the first of the Wagner Ring Cycles simultaneously; but as he tells Luke Slattery of The Australian “the economic situation in Spain meant we couldn’t do the whole Ring so I could have come in December after all.”  The AWO concerts in both Melbourne and Sydney were re-scheduled to October of the same year and Mehta made up for his Ashes disappointment by surrounding himself with cricketers Brett Lee, Steve Waugh, Richie Benaud and Ian Chappell amongst others. At the concerts, Mehta conducted Mahler’s First Symphony and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, both to great acclaim as you can hear from the CD produced in association with the ABC (ABC 481 0847).

Mehta’s musical career begins in 1954 when, as a teen-ager, he decides to forsake his medical studies in Bombay (now Mumbai) in favour of studying with Hungarian-born conductor Hans Swarowsky in Vienna.  Two of his colleagues at the ‘school’ turn out to be the late Claudio Abbado and Daniel Barenboim. Within four years Mehta has made his conducting debut with the Vienna Philharmonic and also win The Liverpool International Conducting Competition. 

He is barely 22. He becomes the assistant at the Liverpool Philharmonic before becoming chief conductor. In 1960 he is made Musical Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (I personally saw him perform there in the late 60s) a post he holds until 1967.  At the same time he is made assistant to Georg Solti at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a post he holds briefly because Solti, his superior at the time, resigns in a huff for not being consulted of Mehta’s appointment. Mehta thereafter takes over the mantle of Music Director in 1962, a post he holds till 1978.  In recognition of his endeavours at Los Angeles he is awarded his own ‘star’ on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011.

Mehta has a history of staying at Musical Director posts for long periods of time – a rarity in his profession.  His next tenure is at the New York Philharmonic where he lasts from 1978 to 1991. Throughout, he continues his rapport with the Israel Philharmonic which he joined in 1969 as a Music Advisor, becoming Music Director in 1977 and in 1981 is made Music Director for Life.  Late news suggests Mehta will retire from the IPO in October 2019.

Since 1985 Mehta has been chief conductor of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentina.  From 1998 till 2006 he is Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera while the Munich Philharmonic bestows on him an Honorary Conductorship.  Lorin Maazel shared the main conductor duties at the new opera house in Valencia with Mehta until the untimely death of Maazel last year.

But the ‘main event’ of Mehta’s professional career is conducting the FIFA world-cup three tenors concert held at the Caracalla Baths in Rome on July 7, 1990.  Who can forget the sumptuousness of the venue and the spectacular singing that Pavarotti, Carreras and Domingo produced. It caught the imagination of the world like no other musical event ever did.  Even the subsequent three tenors concert (one in Melbourne) never captured the magic of that first one. At the time, I remember walking into the Bangkok airport transit lounge (our flight from England to Sydney had been delayed due to mechanical problems) and being transfixed by what I saw and heard on the television screen.  The VHS video of the event becomes a best-seller and the whole cycle is repeated when the digital version came out recently on DVD.

For years Mehta and his good chum, Daniel Barenboim have been trying, without success, to convince the Israeli authorities to allow operatic performances of Wagner’s works in the country.  In addition Barenboim, with his West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, is trying to breach the divide between the Arab-Israeli culture. But Mehta, himself has not been backwards in that regard. He spends at least three months of the year in Israel where all 105 members of the Israel Philharmonic are hand-picked.  So far no Israeli Arabs have been part of the mix but Mehta is hopeful that in years to come their talent will surface. “We have an Arab training programme in the town of Nazareth,” he is quoted as saying. “They are not ready to join the orchestra but that is my dream.”  

 

Published by Randolph Magri-Overend

One of the questions Randolph hates to answer is “Where do you come from?” Why? Because the answer can be so time-consuming and, in a way, also gives away how old he is!! Plus the questioner has to wrestle with the wish he hadn’t asked the question!! He was born in Cairo, Egypt, many moons ago of British parents although he can trace Maltese and Croatian ancestry in his lineage. Educated in a Jesuit college in London his wander lust for things unorthodox drove him to embark on a seafaring career with both Canadian Pacific Steamships and Shaw Savill. That in itself dates him because both lines have been redundant for many a year. One of his boasts is that he was the Purser on the “Gothic” which ten years previously had been Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Yacht soon after her coronation in 1953. One of the objects imported on the ship by HM and left behind was a tape player which Randolph utilised on many a memorable Sunday evening with a classical concert for his passengers. Thus began a journey that not only awakened Randolph’s love for good music but also eventually led to his extensive knowledge of music in all forms. That he loves the era of Sinatra, Crosby, Armstrong, Dorsey (both) and many many more exponents of the post-war music scene is also part and parcel of his appreciation of the music of many an era. These days Randolph is retired but still reviews CDs and DVDs and has written articles on such diverse personalities as Yvonne Kenny, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Alexander Briger, the late Sir John Tavener, Sir James Galway, Dawn Upshaw and countless probes into the music of Gustav Mahler, Elizabeth Shwarzkopf and her husband Walter Legge, Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein and many many more he regrets to admit he has lost track of! Before emigrating to Australia, Randolph spent a number of years as a Flight Dispatcher in Canada. Since arriving in Australia, Randolph has written for The Weekend Australian (especially in their travel pages), The Sydney Morning Herald, Opera Opera and Fine Music magazine as well as some jazz magazines. If you require an extensive coverage of your music to a public that, at last count, reaches the best part of 818,000 please contact David Kary on editor.sydneyartsguide@gmail.com or email me directly on ibmar@bigpond.com. This also includes advertising any forthcoming shows by promoting featured artists. Cheers and thank you.