Inbal Conducts Frankfurt Radio Symphony Tonight at Arts Center

Conductor Eliahu Inbal enjoys being a wanderer. Although for almost 16 years he has been the principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony in West Germany, he announced his retirement from the post earlier this year in order to continue a Gypsy career that he began back in the early 1960s.

“I had always refused positions in the past because I did not feel like sitting in one place for too long--I wanted to keep moving,” he recalled in a phone conversion from New York City, a recent stop in the current tour with his orchestra. “But in 1974, my first child had come along and so, wanting something more permanent, I took the position.”

Tonight at the Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa, Inbal will conduct his 110-member orchestra in a program of Ravel’s “Sheherazade” and “Rhapsodie espagnole” along with Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, assisted by local soprano Arlene Auger. On Saturday, he undertakes Mahler’s mammoth Symphony No. 6. Their appearance is presented by the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

“I do lots of Mahler because I am asked and pressed to do Mahler,” he said, with a sense of both humor and regret. “People consider me an authority on Mahler because I did a recording of his complete symphonies last year. Now I have a recording coming out of the symphonic works of Berlioz, so I guess I will become an authority on him now.

“There are similarities and contrasts between Mahler and Ravel. What Mahler communicates in a macrocosm, Ravel says in miniature. They both have the same cosmos of conflicting ideas, ambiguity, fear, hope and lyricism.”

Born in Jerusalem 53 years ago, Inbal looks back on his career with the orchestra with pleasant memories and a sense of accomplishment. But now that his three children have grown to a comfortable traveling age, he wants to leave the orchestra to pursue other goals.

“There was a seriousness about their work that attracted me,” he replied, when asked about the only permanent music post he has ever held. “They were always a good orchestra, but I thought their potential had not yet been realized.

“Now I want to do more opera and traveling. I will still be with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony as a guest conductor with concerts booked up to 1993, but I want the freedom to explore new things.”

But for a wanderer, Inbal has been seen very little in the Southland. In 1967 he made his Southland conducting debut at the Hollywood Bowl with the Israel Philharmonic, but hasn’t been seen here since.

Nine years ago he brought the Frankfurt Radio Symphony to the United States for the first time, but tonight will be the orchestra’s first (and only) West Coast appearance. From here it moves on to an extensive tour of Japan.

Since its inception in 1928, the Radio Symphony has taken on the role of being an alternative to the more conservative musical societies in Frankfurt, such as the Frankfurt Opera and Museum. Under founder Hans Rosbaud, the orchestra has premiered works by Schoenberg and Bartok as well as many other 20th-Century composers.

Inbal himself has premiered works by composers such as Hans Werner Henze, as well as several contemporary Israeli composers. The orchestra also often collaborates with the famous summer-school courses in new music at Darmstadt.

“As far as the avant-garde is concerned, I am very much an enthusiast,” he insists. “The audience in Stuttgart is like any other audience around the world. About 5% of the public is extremely interested, 10% go along with what they hear, 20% are indifferent and about 60% find it disturbing to them. That is a very unfortunate situation.

“Those composers who are revolutionaries remain actual today. That is why I consider both Mahler and Ravel, as well as Beethoven, contemporary composers. What they say is still relevant.”

But also an unusually progressive stance is the orchestra’s recent tradition of being led by non-Germans. Afro-American conductor Dean Dixon led the orchestra before Inbal, a Jew, took over. In a country still scarred from rampant racism during World War II, this sign of healing is refreshingly positive.

“Of course when I first started out I was a German opponent,” Inbal admitted. “It was very hard to forgive what some of them did. And for a while in my life, every thing I did was approached with this attitude. But I learned to forgive and go on with things.

“Today, I get along with all my students and the people in Germany. I guess the best proof of that is that my wife. I ended up marrying a German.”

The Frankfurt Radio Symphony will appear tonight and Saturday at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Presented by the Orange County Philharmonic Society. Tickets: $12 to $35. Information: (714) 556-2787.