Zubin says thanks and farewell
main‘I have spent more than half my life in this beloved country of Israel’.
It ends in tears.
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All very nice, but his glory days are long gone.
Am looking forward to the new leadership of Lahav Shani.
IPO desperately needs this new blood
ZM is a great musician and a hero of IL culture. He will be cherished for years. One may have different musical tastes, each conductor has his strong and weak points, but ZM is leaving with great dignity as glorious as he has always been.
By the way, the IPO has never sounded better.
I second your comments wholeheartedly, Anton.
Bravo Zubin Mehta! A thousand bravos!
Such a waste of so many all-but-infinite calories over so many all-but-infinite years.
Can’t a guy just retire in peace without comments from the peanut gallery?
Ungenerous and uncalled-for
A cruel and quite vulgar comment.
Good grief. Maybe you can spit on him as he boards the plane.
I must agree with you. Yet, maestro Mehta deserves deep respect and many thanks for his contributions and for his love for Israel and the IPO. Let us hope that Lahav Shani will meet the great expectations of the music lovers in Israel.
Well done.
I will confess that that choked me up a little …
What a gracious, eloquent farewell! Clicked on this at work while I was opening mail, and I had to stop. Wiping tears away afterward myself.
Mehta took a lot of critical hits over the years, but at his best he was/is a formidable conductor: Excellent work building up the LA Phil into a very fine orchestra, any time he conducted opera (I think Mehta’s true metier – wish he had done far more), and of course with the Israel Philharmonic. The NY Philharmonic and he weren’t the happiest match, and yes, he phoned in a fair number of performances in Avery Fisher Hall, but then we’d hear him guesting in Vienna, or back in Israel, or with some other major orchestra, and we’d realize, “Oh yes, this fellow really has talent.”
Let’s hope this is not farewell but merely au revoir.
I often found him a little boring and stale with the Philharmonic, but two top orchestras whose members had no obligation to invite him back – Berlin and Vienna – did so regularly.
Maestro Zubin Mehta is one of the most recognized, beloved, talented conductor, leaving his IPO position of more than 50 years with his sincere and dignified message! From the large family of admiring musicians, wishing him good health and much happiness!❤️
I’ve never been much of a fan of the Israel Philharmonic because it seems, repertoire-wise, to be extremely hidebound and conservative, playing what its Central European Jewish refugees would have wanted to hear 90 years ago in Berlin or Warsaw. Israel today is a modern and innovative society, and you would hope its repertoire and general approach would reflect that.
I would have hoped, at least, they would have taken a “they killed our people, but they’ll never kill our culture” approach and, say, championed the composers killed or suppressed by the Nazis and the Soviets: Goldschmidt, Krenek, Krasa, Weinberg, and others.
Hard to watch this with a dry eye. Among high profile orchestras and conductors, Zubin Mehta at the IPO must have had by far the longest current tenure.
What made them appoint him music director for life in the 1960s?
Mehta is a wonderful musician whose star faded too soon. Maybe it was New York that did it. Good fortune for Israel and Munich that he spent so much time there. LA hired him when he was a kid – and he had the talent as his many fine recordings reveal. I will always be grateful to him for that magnificent, and still unequaled, account of Franz Schmidt’s 4th symphony. And a great Star Wars record, too!
A classy and dignified farewell !!
Very moving; thank you Zubin Mehta for your decades-long commitment to great music, your skill and dedication. Mazel tov.
I ended watching that video in tears also.
Does this mean Zubin is retiring from conducting altogether?
In my opinion, Zubin OWNED the Mahler 2nd Symphony. His Vienna Phil recording for Decca, and the live one with the NY Phil in their Mahler box, are unsurpassed and rarely equaled.
Good luck, Maestro, for whatever you have planned for the future.
Bravississimo!
Greg,
Graciously, eloquently, and beautifully said!
Thank you!
Cate
He is one of those rare conductors who got better as he aged.
I am confused here. His best work, as far as I can tell, was with the LAP
He and Barenboim talk almost identically in intonation, speed and facial mannerisms
In our opinion, that’s the -only- resemblance.
We adore and so admire Maestro Zubin; and as someone has already stated, “Mazel Tov, Maestro!” . . .
We wish you many, many more thoroughly enjoyable and genius performances, as we look forward to attending as many as possible!
Blessings!
Todah Rabah Maestro!
Thank you Zubi Mehta for your love for Israel and your great dedication .
You will always be remembered as the wondeful and longest serving conductor in Israel.
You were indeed our greatest Ambassador!
We hope it is au revoir and not good bye. A million thanks!
Indeed a sad farewell from the honorary member of the Kosher Nostra of music.
He looks & sounds unwell, face bloated by steroids & obviously short of breath.
Wishing the great Zubin a refuah shlemah.
My question still stands:
Is the great Zubin Mehta retiring from conducting altogether, or just from the Israel Phil Conductor-For-Life position?
Bernard Caplan’s sympathetic comment troubles me, as I have not followed ZM’s recent physical appearance.
And being Italian, I don’t know what “refuah shlemah” is, but judging from the context it sounds good and positive, so I say also: a refuah shlemah from me too, Zubin!
(P.S.: No disrespect to you, Bernard, but I have never liked that label “Kosher Nostra”. It has always seemed demeaning and vaguely big-brothery to me. And that has nothing to do with me being Italian.)