It’s hard to imagine a more congenial musical relationship than that of Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic (IPO). They are of one mind, heart, soul, aesthetics – a completeness that reminds one of what Simon Rattle achieved with the Birmingham Symphony. Mehta will step down as music director in 2019, at the half-century mark of molding this orchestra into one of the world’s best.
I won’t rehash historical details about how Toscanini conducted the IPO – formerly called the Palestine Philharmonic – in 1936, the group’s subsequent artistic development or even tidbits about Mehta’s directorship of orchestras in Montreal, Los Angeles or New York.
Monday evening, the IPO under its 81 year-old music director Zubin Mehta performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles to nearly sold-out capacity, where the audience eagerly clapped after every movement of every work on the program. However, it was a no-brainer to understand why this occurred. Mehta is the grand seigneur of conductors.
His strong, muscular presence and subtle gestures are communicated with the flick of a baton which brings a sense of seriousness to the music he conducted without a score – except for the opening work.
The program contained three selections, one of which was Beethoven’s third piano concerto, Op. 37 with acclaimed soloist Yefim “Fima” Bronfman. Let’s begin from the beginning. Around 8:00 pm the IPO appeared onstage en masse and soon Mehta walked slowly to the podium, politely acknowledging cheers.
The audience sprung to their feet and many sang along as the national anthems of this country and Israel were played – the Star-Spangled Banner and Hatikva. Then the fireworks began with Footnote, Suite for Orchestra by Israeli film composer Amit Poznansky – perhaps best know in this country for his score to the TV series Prisoners of War.
Footnote is a fresh, jazzy, upbeat, cliché-ish work, bouncing with atmospheric orchestration for piano, harps, percussion and winds. No doubt the piece is boldly entertaining and programmable, but then again, so is Bernstein’s Candide Overture in its own way.
Then Tashkent-born Bronfman arrived onstage. He immigrated to Israel in 1973 and studied there with Arie Vardi before entering The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music and achieving international stardom. Mehta and Fima seemed symbiotically connected to Beethoven’s Op. 37 in providing a collaboration of understated refinement and pinpoint articulation. The interpretation was characteristic of a tradition associated with the first Viennese School (rather than the second school of Schoenberg, Berg, Webern).
Their imitative exchanges and terraced dynamics were beautifully balanced and phrases began with a delicate upbeat and ended with a soft-landing, particularly in the strings - a technique often heard from players of the Vienna Philharmonic. Bronfman’s approach also made the most of the softer side of pianism.
He drew out a variety of pianissimo and fortissimo contrasts and mellifluous arpeggiated passagework in the cadenza; the Largo took on a trancelike quality of hushed nuances that seemed suspended in time; the Rondo’s tempo was jump-started with fluency and crisp rhythmic punch. After much applause, Bronfman gave a rather ethereal account of Chopin’s beloved Etude Op. 10. No. 3, with Mehta, as listener, sitting among violin members.
After intermission, Schubert’s ninth symphony, D. 944 was the sole work and Mehta’s majestic vision was lilting, well paced and structurally cohesive – an interpretative code Mehta experienced during his studies at Vienna’s Music Academy. In this regard, Schubert was and still seems the master of modulations, and this symphony – rediscovered by Robert Schumann in 1838 and premiered under Mendelssohn the following year – is no exception.
The Great symphony is lengthy and requires a lot of stamina from orchestra and listener. Schubert could be called a 19th century minimalist for his melodic sequences that seem to endlessly twist and return to the same spot but in different keys. Mehta and group provided a reading of unity.
The performance was infused with kinetic energy, precision bowing, sweetness of sound, incisive interludes from brass, dance-like flexibility in the Scherzo and contributions from the sublime wind players, who were positioned in a circle in front of Mehta. This configuration brought a feeling of intimacy that one might have experienced with downsized orchestras of Schubert’s time.
After many onstage bows by Mehta and orchestra, two encores were given: Dvorak’s fiery Slavonic Dance, Op. 46 No. 8, played at a fast clip and Tritsch-Tratsch Polka of Johann Strauss, a reminder of Mehta’s conducting stints with the Vienna Philharmonic during their New Year’s Eve concerts. It was a memorable Monday evening.