Mumbai: Zubin Mehta is now a permanent resident of the US, but retains his Indian citizenship and says he loves coming back to “Bombay”.
“But also, every time I come, I get frustrated to see the condition of the city. We used to live in Cuffe Parade, which was a quiet nook in South Bombay and it was heavenly. We’d see hundreds of people going for work, till evening, and during the monsoons, they would run and come to our houses to hide from the rain…it was just a lovely way we grew up. That’s all gone.” He adds,
“Ours was one of the four houses in Cuffe Parade, and architecturally they were very special. Only two of them are left now and they are not very well maintained, I must say. So I cannot respect the government of Bombay to let these kinds of things happen.” He was quick to draw a parallel.
“The government house (Governor’s bungalow) still looks the same from a distance. My father used to give concerts there. The concerts would depend on who was Governor — one Englishman loved music, one Englishman didn’t. My father also played for incoming Viceroys — there was one Lord Linlithgow he played for,” recalls Mehta.
Playing music in conflict zones
Zubin Mehta, who has been with Israel Philharmonic for 47 years, is openly critical of Israeli policy. “In 2014, I gave an interview in which I didn’t speak about music. An hour later Shimon Peres (who was President at the time) called me and told me, ‘thank God you can say things I can’t.”
His journey with the Israel Philharmonic began in 1961. “Every young conductor gets a chance to jump in for somebody ailing, but it’s not necessary that you get called back. But they called me back in ’63 and by ’69, they offered me directorship.
Today, every single member of the orchestra has been picked by me. What helped very much in the 1980s, was the influx of immigrants from the Soviet Union. And they were so talented. Even in the communist times, art was an important factor.”
Mehta has never shied away from playing in conflict zones. His connection with Israel was a bone of contention for separatist groups in Kashmir who didn’t want him to play there.
Braving protests he played at the Shalimar Garden last year. “That concert came from my heart. And despite the gadbad, 70 per cent of Kashmiris attended,” Mehta says. He also recalls the time they played amidst the ruins of a bombed Muslim library in Sarajevo.
“We brought musicians from Croatia and Slovenia because the orchestra in Bosnia was decimated. The UN broadcast the concert to collect money for refugee funding. But I truly feel I don’t do enough.”
