Zubin Mehta about the Romanian public

Today starts „George Enescu” Festival. Zubin Mehta, one of the greatest conductors of the century, spoke to Q Magazine about the purpose of music in mankind and gave us his opinion about the Romanian public.

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What does it take to be a great conductor, besides having a tremendous amount of talent?

It takes knowledge. A lot amount of knowledge. You must know about the composer, the piece, its structure, its orchestration, you have to understand it. One has to know everything before one learns a symphony even by Hayden or by Beethoven. You have to know the person intimately.

Maestro, what is the purpose of music?

Well, let me ask you another question. Can you imagine a World without music? So, what is its the purpose? Music is everywhere, the world feeds and nourishes on music. We cannot do without it.

Zubin Mehta will conduct, alongside the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, on the 31 of August (Schönberg – Chamber Symphony No.1 and Bruckner – Symphony No. 8) and the 1st of September (Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 and Enescu’s Vox Maris).

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ou have received countless awards for your outstanding career. If you were to tell our readers who Zubin Metha is behind the curtains, what would you say?

Even when I am not a conductor, I am the same person. I am a family man; I have my children and my grandchildren even though I do not spend enough time with them. One day I will bring them to Romania.

You should do that. I always say that Romania is a wonderful country, with some many breathtaking places to visit…

If you had had the opportunity to speak to a great composer of the past, who would do like to meet?

Mozart.

And what would you ask him?

I have so many questions that I would not know where to start from.  I have a question for every part of his opera.

Do you remember your debut? I think it was Tosca…

Tosca is not an easy opera to conduct. Everybody thinks it is easy, but Tosca is a very difficult opera. To answer your question –yes- I do remember my debut.

This is the 5^th time coming back to Romania, to attend “George Enescu” Festival. Back in 2011, you wrote a letter to the Romanian authorities asking them for a better hall for the concerts. You never received an answer.  Where do you think the problem comes from?

Romania has one of the best publics in the world. They love music so much, and the “Enesco” Festival has a fantastic program, all the great artists and orchestras of the world are coming to Romania. Your public deserves a better hall to hear them. I hope that in the future they will build a concert hall. I will say this every time when I am in Romania.

Can you name few Romanians, no matter the area, whom you might recall…

I have lots of Romanian friends. There were Romanian children at my school. I am a great friend of your violinist, Silvia Marcovici, for instance.

Besides being one of the world’s most important conductors, you have also taken an interest in helping youngsters who are musical talented. If I recall correct, so far you have founded two institutions – one in India and the other in Israel – which offer such support. How important is, for a young musician, to receive this kind of assistance?

India is full of artistic talents and the Arabic population has enormous potential as well. The school I have founded in the north of Israel has many talented young musicians, and I hope one of them will play in the Philharmonic Orchestra in the nearby future. To receive such support is indeed very important.