Zubin Metha: Live Recordings 1963-2006

Zubin Metha & The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra

various composers

Wholenote Discoveries - May 2011
To honour Zubin Mehta’s 40th Anniversary as Music Director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Helicon Classics has assembled this set of thirty-seven live performances selected from Mehta’s expansive repertoire, from Vivaldi to now. Heard are soloists Arie Vardi, Yefin Bronfman, Radu Lupu, Alicia de Larrocha, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Chaim Taub, Daniel Benyamini, Marjana Lipovšek, Isaac Stern, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yehudi Menuhin, Lyn Harrell, Stella Richmond, Mischa Maisky, and many more. The set includes a disc of music by Israeli composers. Available space precludes listing the works but among the standouts is Bloch’s Schelomo, enjoying a blazing interpretation by cellist Mischa Maisky supported by Mehta and a white-hot orchestra. It’s one for the books. The Verdi Requiem was recorded at an open-air performance in July of 1968 given in Manger Square in front of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity following a call for peace in the Holy Land. The concert started late so as not to disturb the call to prayer from the adjacent Jamma El Omar mosque. The soloists are Martina Arroyo, Shirley Verrett, Richard Tucker, and Bonaldo Giaiotti. This performance generated headlines and is included as a significant event. The recorded sound in this case is merely adequate. There is an overall characteristic bloom around each of these performances and a distinct impression that the musicians are attentive to each other. Perhaps it is this and their esprit de corps that has resulted in the orchestra’s identifiable patina on every performance heard on these discs. This is an attractive collection of idiomatic performances of mostly familiar works, well played and well recorded. Bruce Surtees

Conducting over 2000 concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra would obviously not be possible were it not for the daily involvement of my friends and colleagues of the orchestra from whom I have not only learnt my profession but have been inspired at nearly every concert to give forth of my best in answer to their superb interpretations that I have come to admire since that last 40 years.
It is impossible to name every one of my "family members" of the orchestra but where would I be today without the constant counseling of great musicians like Chaim Taub, Daniel Benyamini or Mordechai Rechtman. I am eternally grateful to various past Orchestra Counsel members, also fine musicians, like Ze'ev Dorman and Jacob Mishori for their unending patience in planning the artistic life of the orchestra. The future planning of the orchestra's activities after hours and hours of discussing and arguing would still not come to fruition if it were not for the selfless dedication of the two General Secretaries that I have had the honor to work with: namely Abe Cohen and last but not least Avi Shoshani, whose patience, tenacity and powers as a negotiator, whether it is convincing an artist to lower his or her fee or an impresario to increase the orchestra's fee, is absolutely exemplary.
The past 40 seasons has gone by like a flash and I wish I could do it all over again, alas not much time remains but I can assure all my colleagues of the orchestra and my enduring Israeli public that I shall give it my best shot until I am 120!! - Weh ist mir!!
Zubin Metha

Price: $109.98