Word: mehtas
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Part of the hype surrounding the guest orchestra's appearance was that soloists Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman were recreating their 1982 recording (on Deutsche Grammophon) of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola, K.364, again under Zubin Mehta. But after the Mozart had been played, Perlman and Zukerman played an unexpected encore that astonished the crowd...
...concert began with Brahms' "Variations on a Theme by Haydn," Op.56a. With modest phrasing and understated conducting by Mehta, the orchestra seemed comfortable with the vaguely religious character of the piece. The second variation, in which accented downbeats in the strings set off flowing motion in the winds, best manifested the gentle and evolving tone...
...times, Mehta seemed constricted by the serene monotony of the music. Finally, in the last variation, he was able to bring down triumphant chords from the strings and brass that resembled those Brahms employed in his emotional Violin Concerto...
Unfortunately, the climax and finale of the piece did not expand the whole but only continued it in predictable progression. The horns seemed to disappear by the end of their solos, and the bells did not really blend into the full landscape of the climax. Mehta later proved that the Israel Philharmonic was capable of true force, but here the power of a Brahms finale, even of such a relatively inconsequential piece, was noticeably lacking...
...honored to have been among those selected for this distinction," said Mehta...