Zubin Mehta

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Zubin Mehta (2007)

Zubin Mehta (born April 29, 1936 in Bombay, now Mumbai ) is an Indian conductor . The versatile and internationally active artist was, among other things, chief conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1962 to 1978, chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 1978 to 1991 , and general music director of the Bavarian State Opera from 1998 to 2006 . From 1977 to 2019 he was also music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra .

Life

Mehta (left) with the violinist Isaac Stern (1980)

Mehta comes from the ethnic group of parsing . He grew up in a wealthy Zoroastrian family of musicians in Central India and has a younger brother. At the age of seven he received his first violin and piano lessons and became familiar with European classical music at an early age. During the first to fifth school year (1942–1946) he attended the private "Campion School" Bombay under the direction of Jesuit priests. His only sporting interest was cricket . In 1947, Mehta entered St. Mary's High School in Mumbai , where he graduated from college four years later.

As a pupil of his father Mehli Mehta, a violin virtuoso who spent many years in the USA, he conducted the Bombay Symphony Orchestra for the first time at the age of 16. At the request of his parents, he began to study medicine at St. Xavier's College of the University of Mumbai . After two semesters, however, he concentrated entirely on music. At the age of 18 he came to Vienna and studied piano , composition and double bass at the Vienna Music Academy . He trained as a conductor with Hans Swarowsky .

In 1958 he won the Liverpool International Conducting Competition, where he became deputy conductor. In his mid-twenties he had already conducted the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic , with which he is still associated today. In the USA he took second place in the competition in Tanglewood / Massachusetts. At this time he also met the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra , Charles Münch , who had a great influence on his further career. In 1960 Mehta made his debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra , the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Orchester symphonique de Montréal , of which he was director from 1962 to 1966.

Mehta with the IPO at the orchestra's 75th anniversary in Tel Aviv (2011)

Mehta was music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1962 to 1978 . In 1969 he also became musical advisor to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO), where he was appointed chief conductor in 1977 and music director for life in 1981. Mehta announced that he will be handing over the leadership of the 2019 IPO to Lahav Shani , 50 years after starting work with the IPO . In 1978 he became music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and stayed for 13 years until he was replaced by Kurt Masur . Since 1985 he has been chief conductor of the Maggio Musicale in Florence .

Mehta worked as an opera conductor in Montréal, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, at the Vienna State Opera , at the State Opera Unter den Linden Berlin, at the Bavarian State Opera , at the London Royal Opera House Covent Garden, at La Scala in Milan and at the opera houses of Montréal , Chicago, Berlin (Deutsche Oper) and Florence as well as at the Salzburg Festival . With Turandot in the Forbidden City and Tosca in Rome, he performed two major opera projects in original locations.

From September 1998 to 2006 Mehta was general music director at the Bavarian State Opera.

Mehta conducted the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic at the Wiener Musikverein five times , first in 1990 as the successor to Carlos Kleiber , then in 1995, 1998, 2007 and 2015 .

family

Mehta conducts the IPO at a concert on the occasion of his father's 100th birthday at the NCPA Mumbai (2008)

Mehta has been married to actress Nancy Kovack since July 19, 1969 . From her first marriage to Carmen Lasky, there are two adult children. His son Mervon Mehta is the Vice President of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

His father Mehli Mehta was a prominent concert violinist, violin teacher and conductor who founded the Bombay Symphony Orchestra and a string quartet.

His cousin Dady Mehta is a pianist, his son Bejun Mehta is a world-famous countertenor .

Discography (selection)

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH
1995 New Year's Concert 1995 - AT-
gold
gold
AT
-
First published: January 1995
1998 New Years Concert 1998 - AT15th
gold
gold

(9 weeks)AT
-
First published: January 1998
with the Vienna Philharmonic
2007 New Year's Concert 2007 DE40 (4 weeks)
DE
AT1
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(19 weeks)AT
CH48 (4 weeks)
CH
First published: January 2007
with the Vienna Philharmonic
2008 Chopin - The Piano Concertos DE86 (4 weeks)
DE
- -
First published: November 2008
with the Vienna Philharmonic & Lang Lang
2014 Timeless - Brahms & Bruch: Violin Concertos DE11
gold
gold

(13 weeks)DE
AT9 (8 weeks)
AT
CH25 (9 weeks)
CH
First published: October 2014
with David Garrett & Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
2015 New Year's Concert - 2015 New Year's Concert DE22 (5 weeks)
DE
AT1
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(25 weeks)AT
CH8 (4 weeks)
CH
First published: January 2015
with the Vienna Philharmonic
Summer Night Concert 2015 - Summer Night Concert - AT31 (2 weeks)
AT
-
First published: May 2015
with the Vienna Philharmonic & Rudolf Buchbinder

The 3 tenors

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1990 In concert DE3
platinum
platinum

(100 weeks)DE
AT2
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(23 weeks)AT
CH10
gold
gold

(16 weeks)CH
UK1
Quintuple platinum
× 5
Quintuple platinum

(82 weeks)UK
US35
Triple platinum
× 3
Triple platinum

(100 weeks)US
First publication: August 1990
with Luciano Pavarotti , Plácido Domingo & Josep Carreras ; US:Quintuple platinum (video album)× 5Quintuple platinum (video album)
1994 In Concert 1994 DE2 (48 weeks)
DE
AT1
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(22 weeks)AT
CH3
platinum
platinum

(22 weeks)CH
UK1
Double platinum
× 2
Double platinum

(28 weeks)UK
US4th
platinum
platinum

(33 weeks)US
First publication: August 1994
with Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo & Josep Carreras; US:Quintuple platinum (video album)× 5Quintuple platinum (video album)

Video albums

  • 2015: New Year's Concert - New Year's Concert 2015 (AT:Gold (video album)Gold (video album))

Awards (selection)

Mehta at the presentation of the Kennedy Prize 2006 with other winners ( Smokey Robinson , Andrew Lloyd Webber , Dolly Parton , Steven Spielberg ), US President George W. Bush with his wife (center)

Web links

Commons : Zubin Mehta  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The legendary conductor of the Israel Philharmonic resigns. In: Israelnetz .de. July 17, 2019, accessed July 23, 2019 .
  2. Lahav Shani. New chief conductor in Israel . In: FAZ , January 19, 2018, p. 14.
  3. ^ Franziska Stürz: Zubin Mehta on the 80th. A musical cosmopolitan. BR-Klassik , April 28, 2016; accessed on January 16, 2017.
  4. Kleiber only conducted the New Year's Concert twice: 1989 and 1992
  5. a b Chart sources: DE AT CH
  6. Music Sales Awards: DE AT AT2 CH UK US
  7. 80 years of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. ( Memento from January 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: 3sat : Program information from January 14, 2017, accessed on January 11, 2020.
  8. List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  9. Zubin Mehta receives Echo Klassik Award . In: Saarbrücker Zeitung , August 5, 2011, p. B4
  10. ^ WDR 3 Kulturnachrichten, July 24, 2012.
  11. Mukherjee confers Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony on Zubin Mehta . NetIndian, September 6, 2013; Retrieved September 7, 2013
  12. Pro-Arte European Prize to Franz Welser-Möst . derStandard.at, July 12, 2017; accessed on July 13, 2017.
  13. ^ Austrian music theater awards to Damrau and Kang . Salzburger Nachrichten, June 28, 2016; accessed on June 28, 2016.