The Storm Over Zubin Mehta in Israel

Zubin Mehta was under pressure. With Murray Perahia as soloist, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor on the program of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert was being recorded live for release by CBS Records. Each time the conductor lifted his arms to begin, however, muffled coughs rose from the audience.

By the third or fourth time, the audience greeted each cough with nervous laughter. Finally, Mehta turned to face the crowd and said, in a half-joking, half-exasperated tone, “Why don’t you all cough together?” The audience burst into applause, and the program continued.

The concert was the last of a series that Mehta conducted in Israel last month. As music director of the IPO for the last 20 years, he makes three annual trips here, splitting his other time between a home in Los Angeles and conducting the New York Philharmonic.

Mehta’s 20 years in Israel have earned him great popularity among subscribers and the general public. During his most recent visit, he appeared on national television twice, including a half-hour interview program dedicated to him.

But this personal popularity hasn’t muted criticism of the music director. Conducting as many as six concerts a week during a three-week run here, he got generally poor reviews. In recent months there have been arguments that he has overstayed his welcome.

Hanoch Ron is the music critic of Israel’s largest mass-circulation daily newspaper, Yediot Aharonot. At 52, he is the same age as both Mehta and the IPO. He argues that the national orchestra’s standards have dropped dangerously low since the 1960s, and he puts much of the blame squarely on Mehta’s shoulders.

Ron acknowledged that the IPO’s illustrious beginnings put tremendous pressure on anyone who works with it today. Founded in 1936 by Polish-born violinist Bronislaw Huberman, the orchestra counted among its early members many prominent European Jewish musicians who fled the Nazis and found refuge in what was then Palestine.

Arturo Toscanini led the orchestra in its premiere concert in December 1936. He welcomed the opportunity to work with the skilled musicians who had gathered in Tel Aviv, but he also relished the chance to make a political statement against the fascist rule that had forced the orchestra’s members out of Europe.

“Americans like to say, ‘Think big,’ ” Ron said, “but in the 1930s, nobody thought big here.” Nevertheless, the IPO took off in a big way. Toscanini was followed by a constant stream of leading figures from the music world, including a young Leonard Bernstein, who made his first appearance here in 1947.

Ron charged that the glory days peaked in the 1960s, and that the IPO has been on the decline since Mehta became music director in 1969.

“The orchestra has never been in such bad shape as it’s in today,” the critic said. He cited the horns as an example of a weak section. “Mehta feels it. Rather than fix it, he brought in an American player, but that has no impact.

“The players are fine,” he continued, “but they don’t play as a section.” The IPO needs to spend more time rehearsing, and Mehta should work with each section more than he does, the critic said.

Ron charged that Mehta embraces big public spectacles, such as open-air concerts with fireworks, which come at the expense of practice and innovative programming.

Furthermore, he said that Mehta should include more Israeli compositions in the IPO’s programming. “He doesn’t know what’s going on here. His connection with Israel isn’t with culture, it’s with gala events and flirting with the nouveau riche and the media.”

IPO management committee member and principal hornist Yaacov Mishori dismissed Ron’s criticism.

“Most of the orchestra members really like Mehta,” Mishori said. “Of course, if he decided to leave tomorrow, the orchestra

would survive.

“If it was time for a change,” he insisted, “we would have made a change.”

Mehta grew visibly upset when asked to comment on Ron’s criticism during a recent interview. Scoffing at the idea that he enjoys hobnobbing with a wealthy crowd, he pointed out that as one of the IPO’s leading fund raisers, “It is very important that I keep in touch with whatever money there is in this country.”

The criticism goes deeper than such superficial concerns as to who Mehta’s friends are. Last October, several newspapers--including the English-language Jerusalem Post--put forth more fundamental suggestions.

Ron said it this way: “The greatest thing he could do today is say, ‘Thank you very much,’ and leave.”

Mehta countered by saying that he takes his orders from the Philharmonic members--who all participate in operations by running it as a cooperative--not from the media.

“There was an opinion expressed in the newspapers that, after 20 years, maybe the Israel Philharmonic should consider asking me to leave,” Mehta said. “I thought they might have a point, so I asked my orchestra. They told me overwhelmingly that they wanted me to stay.”

In a secret ballot, 80% of the cooperative’s members supported Mehta. As far as the conductor is concerned, that settled the issue.

Until 1981, Mehta signed a contract with the IPO every three years, and the cooperative members had to approve each new contract. This gave them an opportunity to voice support for the music director at regular intervals.

In 1981, however, the orchestra appointed Mehta music director for life. While the members or Mehta are free to cancel the appointment at any time, the appointment signaled an end to regular votes of confidence.

Ilan Eshed, the orchestra’s assistant principal trumpet player since 1967, said that last October’s vote came as a result of the outside criticism being leveled against Mehta and the IPO.

The vote cannot be considered a pure reflection of the orchestra’s feelings, Eshed and others imply. The tendency to defend their leader against external criticism may have skewed the final vote.

Eshed argued that the vote helped the IPO overcome its immediate crisis, but did not address the larger challenge of creating systems for internal control.

Eshed was unwilling to go along with the critics’ call for Mehta to leave the IPO, but acknowledged that the orchestra has a problem.

“Our work with Mehta has become too routine,” he said, choosing his words carefully. After more than a quarter-century together, “We don’t see the man’s greatness anymore, and we don’t see the greatness of what we can do with him.

“I have a dream,” Eshed revealed. He would like to see Mehta conduct the IPO after an absence of a year or two. “That way, I think we would really revel in his greatness.”

The debate will probably continue for as long as Mehta remains the IPO’s music director. With 36,000 loyal subscribers, the IPO’s world-class reputation and an 80% vote of confidence under his belt, Mehta is likely to stay in Israel for many more years.

Mehta’s ties with the IPO go back to 1961, when he served as guest conductor for the first time. Since then, when both he and the orchestra were 25 years old, the relationship has spanned several Israeli wars, numerous international tours and a fair share of criticism.

Many Israelis view Mehta as an honorary citizen. He returns the compliment, saying, “I identify with this country.” He admits, however, that he feels equally at home in three countries: India, where he was born, the United States, where he makes his home, and Israel.

During his tenure in Tel Aviv, he has simultaneously been music director, first of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, later of the New York Philharmonic. Since announcing his departure from New York in 1991, Mehta has indicated that he will not seek the post of music director at any other North American orchestra.

He has no intention of leaving the IPO, which operates as a cooperative--the players manage the orchestra, without recourse to replacing outside boards of directors or overseers.

“(The system) has its drawbacks,” Mehta acknowledged, especially in the financial realm. “We do not have a board of directors who balances our budget,” he said. The New York Philharmonic ends each year in the black, he said, while the IPO struggles every season.

Mehta often steps in to raise money for the orchestra. He sees no alternative; the IPO has an endowment of just $5 million, while the New York Philharmonic has 10 times that amount.

“If the Jewish Sabbath didn’t forbid it, we’d play on Friday night too,” he said.

Mehta conducts the IPO in about 90 concerts annually, 60 in Israel and 30 abroad. He spends 20 weeks per year in New York with his other orchestra. In that time, he conducts about 85 times, plus additional performances during five weeks of touring.

Mehta said that the hectic schedule he maintains in Israel prevents him from having much of an outside life here. His wife remains at home in Beverly Hills when he travels to Israel, and he lives at the Tel Aviv Hilton.

“I have friends in the orchestra,” he said, when pressed for details about his social life in Israel.

“I’m really not a party person. I’m in the business of working with 100 people every day, so I don’t revel in meeting a roomful of people in my leisure time.”

The current spring tour of the Israel Philharmonic includes concerts Saturday in Los Angeles, March 19 in Costa Mesa, March 20 in San Diego and March 21 in Palm Desert.