In Rehearsal: Zubin Mehta

Featuring some of today’s leading conductors in rehearsal, this series gives a unique insight into the process of creating great music. The conductors’ very different styles and methods; the dialogue between an orchestra and an inspired interpreter; the intensity of the preparations for a concert performance; and the struggle towards perfection are captured in these revealing audio-visual records. Most episodes include a full run-through of the work rehearsed. All include interviews with the conductor who is seen at work. Zubin Mehta rehearses the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for a performance of Richard Strauss’s Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche Op. 28.

Lahav Shani conducts the 80 Years of Liberation – May 8 Concert

On the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, known as Liberation Day in Germany, conductor Lahav Shani unites musicians from the Israel Philharmonic and the Münchner Philharmoniker for “a highly emotional performance” (Münchner Merkur) in the Isarphilharmonie. The two orchestras start their first ever collaboration with the deeply moving Prayer, a piece by 97-yearold Israeli composer Tzvi Avni, who travelled to Munich to witness this historic occasion. Then, the musicians come together to shape Mahler’s monumental Sixth Symphony. Shani’s Mahler is “robust, dark, rough, seeking depth” and manages to “achieve the ultimate in tragic expression here – horror and emotion give way to catharsis, to spiritual cleansing” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). PROGRAM: Avni: Prayer; Mahler: Symphony No. 6

The Love of Three Orchestra

Leonard Bernstein’s relationships with the orchestras he conducted were always intense. At their best, he felt that they were somewhere between a love affair and a family in which he played the role of the father. In more than 40 years on the podium, he enjoyed this special kind of relationship with a number of orchestras in the Old World and the New. “The Love of Three Orchestras” is an account of that experience, but concentrates on the three great orchestral families closest to his heart: the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras. Bernstein begins by looking back to that moment in 1943 when he made his triumphant debut with the New York Philharmonic at age 25. Among the landmarks he recalls are the Young People’s Concerts and his twelve years as musical director. Bernstein’s association with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra began in 1947. His reminiscences include stories of performances during the early battle-torn days of the foundation of the State of Israel. Bernstein’s relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic began in 1966. He tells how the relationship got off to a disastrous start and recounts some of the difficulties he found in playing the music of Gustav Mahler with them. The music sequences and examples which illustrate Bernstein’s reminiscences are taken from Unitel films and videotapes directed by Humphrey Burton.

Mahler, Songs from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn”

Gustav Mahler claimed that he had known the collection of poems called “Des Knaben Wunderhorn,” compiled by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, since his earliest youth. In fact, no fewer than half of his songs draw on verses from this collection, including quotations found in Symphonies Nos. 2-4 and other works. Between 1892 and 1895, the young conductor of the Hamburg Opera set to music 12 poems from this collection – the songs “Revelge” and “Der Tambourg’sell” followed in 1899. The Wunderhorn settings administered the death blow to the late-Romantic literary and psychological art song. Mahler felt the Wunderhorn lyrics, the expression of a collective subconscious, to be “essentially different from all kinds of literary poetry, being more nature and life – that is, the sources of all poetry – than art.” Leonard Bernstein leads soloists Lucia Popp (soprano) and Walton Groenroos (baritone) along with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in this recording of all twelve songs.

Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde

“Das Lied von der Erde” (The Song of the Earth) was one of Mahler’s later symphonic works, written in 1908. Mahler often used the human voice as an adjunct to the orchestra in his symphonic writing. “Das Lied von der Erde” borrowed as a framework Hans Bethge’s German translation of six poems by the 18th-century Chinese poet Li-Tai-Po. The songs have been described as “the valedictory of a man who loved life and nature and who knew the bittersweet nostalgia of passing youth and beauty.” The work was recorded at the Frederick Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein.

BACK HOME in Georgia – Khatia Buniatishvili and Zubin Mehta

They have known each for a long time and performed many concerts together: the pianist Khatia Buniatishvili and the conductor Zubin Mehta. Perhaps that is why they can be so open with each other during rehearsals of Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A-Minor. Back Home with the two musicians and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Georgia under special conditions. The rehearsals in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, take place in the great music hall. The concert two hours drive away under the open skies of Tsinandali – a brand new concert place, built up to the very last minute.

Zubin Mehta for his 80th – The Gala Concert in Mumbai

On April 29, 2016, Zubin Mehta will celebrate his 80th birthday. On April 17, however, he will offer himself a birthday present of his own, together with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which has appointed him Musical Director for Life. The event will take place in the new National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mehta’s birthplace, Mumbai, in India.

It will be a celebratory concert with works by three of Mehta’s favorite composers: The program will include Dvoráks “Carnival Overture”, Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin in D major, Op. 61 as well as Ravels’ “La Valse” and the second suite of “Daphnis & Chloé”. Pinchas Zukerman, one of Mehta’s closest colleagues – who has also always had a close connection to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra – will be the soloist.