Zubin Mehta presents ‘Spring 2025 Season’ concert

In what will be historic, 88-year-old legendary Indian composer Zubin Mehta is all set to tour China with a series of concerts that will see Israeli and Palestinian musicians perform together on a single stage, hand in hand - four months since the deadliest war broke out between the two countries that has claimed over 45,000 lives till date.

In an exclusive interview, Mehta, who flew down to Mumbai from Los Angeles to kick off The Symphony Orchestra of India’s ‘Spring 2025 Season’ at ‘The National Centre for Performing Arts’ (NCPA) in Mumbai - which begins on January 25 - said the tour in February would be a lesson to the world on the true power music holds as a great leveller and ambassador of peace and solidarity.

Mehta, in 2009, founded a music education programme for Israeli Arabs called MIFNEH - meaning change and has closely mentored and conducted concerts with Israeli and Palestinian musicians together.

The tour will feature works by Weber, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky, as well as Beethoven and Schubert. It will kick off on February 25 in NCPA, Mumbai and Beijing and travel through Suzhou, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

He said, “We tried to bring it to India, but it was a little too expensive. I am going to China in February with an orchestra called the ‘West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’, which was founded by Daniel Barenboim and will primarily have Israeli and Palestinian musicians. They have existed together for the past 25 years and are the only group of people from the Middle East with Palestinians and Jews together and they get along perfectly.”

“Our trip was to Korea, but they cancelled because they didn’t believe Israelis and Palestinians could get along. They feel they would be troubled. They were wrong. David isn’t well, so he asked me to do this tour for him. Don’t underestimate the strength of music. It brings people together and it heals.”

In 1999, Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian literary scholar Edward W Said created a workshop for young musicians to promote coexistence and intercultural dialogue. They named the orchestra after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s collection of poems, ‘West-Eastern Divan’. An equal number of Israeli and Arab musicians form the base of the ensemble, together with members from Turkey, Iran and Spain. They meet each summer for rehearsals, followed by an international concert tour.

Talking about what is going on between Israel and Palestine, Mehta, who has lived in Israel for many years and advised the ‘Israel Philharmonic’ since 1969, directed since 1977 and led as ‘musical director for life’ since 1981, said, “It pains me greatly to see what’s happening between Israel and Palestinian. It pains me even more to see the three women hostages released last week. There are still over 100 people held as hostages and how many of those are dead, we don’t know. But Israel has 18,000 prisoners and killed 40,000 people in Gaza, don’t forget. What Palestine did on October 7 was dreadful and it has to be replied to. But I think killing 40,000 people for that is too much.”

Launching a scathing attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mehta, known for speaking his mind, said, “There is a reason why this war continues - Netanyahu doesn’t call for elections. If he called for elections, he would lose and go to jail for his crimes. I am a very popular person in Israel and I speak my mind.”

Adding that ‘the future between the two countries is a two-state solution’, Mehta shared, “More than half of Israel wants that and less than half doesn’t want that. Most of these are ultra-religious and they are the ones who support Netanyahu. He is so powerful today that he has an ultimate majority in parliament. He can do whatever he wants at the moment but is afraid to call elections. He will definitely lose.”

“Demonstrations occur every weekend. When I was in February, I also went to some with my friends, but we influenced nothing. And now with Donald Trump back in power, he will support Netanyahu. When Trump was President last time, he moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,” said Mehta, who has been honoured with the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan by India.

Recalling his concert in Kolkata, the only time he performed in the city, Mehta said, “I went to Kolkata only once with the ‘New York Philharmonic’ in 1967. You need a world-class concert hall in Kolkata. I was criticised by the great Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray because I came there and we played in a gymnasium. Because it was a gymnasium with lots of people, I liked the programme and played Beethoven and Brahm symphony. I never met him when he criticised me. If I did, I would tell him, ‘Why don’t you raise money to build a great concert hall?’ Kolkata is a cultural place and it should definitely have one.”

“Chennai too has no concert hall. It is a shame that Delhi, India’s capital - one of the richest countries now - doesn’t have a great concert hall. I have spoken to every minister of culture and they all agree. They always said they had the land, but they never built it. I have never heard Prime Minister Narendra Modi say it,” he added.

Zubin further shared, “I came last time to Delhi with the ‘Australian World Orchestra’, which is one of the best in the world today and we played in some kind of a basketball stadium. You don’t need a great concert hall just for Western Classical music but for all kinds of performances. Ask the PM why he doesn’t build a great concert hall. This is his second term; he should have built one in his first term. The first time I came to Delhi was in 1967 with the ‘Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra’ and played in Delhi at the Siri Fort Auditorium - a dreadful place. An ideal size for a concert hall for classical music and symphony orchestras is 1600 seating because that way, you can almost guarantee good acoustics.”

So according to Mehta, will we ever see a great Opera singer from India?

“Why not? Why hasn’t an Indian ever won a 100 metres race? Do you think Indians can’t run? Of course, they can, but they haven’t been developed. Why don’t they win more events at the Olympics? The government needs to come in and hone talents. There are some great Indian musicians in orchestras in America too but not as many as Korean and Japanese. If you go to a concert of the Chicago Symphony, you only see Asians sitting there - Chinese, Korean and Japanese. I have my music school; something will definitely come out of it.”

So how does Mehta want to be remembered?

“As an honest musician,” he concluded.

Mehta will open SOI’s ‘Spring 2025 Season’ from January 25 to February 15 and will also feature legendary conductor Sir Mark Elder, along with exceptional operatic voices, virtuoso pianist and Mumbai’s own choirs. Mehta will be joined by renowned classical pianist Alexander Gadjiev - celebrated for his expressive musicality and virtuosity - to perform Chopin’s ‘Piano Concerto No. 2’, a work known for its lyrical beauty and emotional depth. The ‘Opera Gala’ evenings will be a highlight, with 200 musicians on stage performing beloved excerpts from ‘Carmen’ and ‘La Traviata’. These operatic gems will be brought to life by some great voices, including Roberta Mantegna (soprano), Olesya Petrova (mezzo-soprano), Luciano Ganci (tenor) and George Petean (baritone), alongside ‘Living Voices Mumbai Choir’ and ‘The Singing Tree Choir’ (children’s choir) of the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation.