Great Performances
Wednesday, November 21, at 9 p.m.
WKAR-HD and WKAR-23
Mehta, Barenboim, Zukerman Lead Israel Philharmonic Birthday Gala
Beloved works by Brahms, Bruch and Ravel take center stage as Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman and Zubin Mehta lead a special birthday gathering honoring one of the world’s most indomitable musical organizations. Raising the curtain on the 35th season of Great Performances on PBS, The Israel Philharmonic 70th Anniversary Gala Concertwas recorded last December in Tel Aviv.
Maestro Mehta, the group’s music director for life, opens the proceedings as he and the orchestra accompany longtime IPO friend Zukerman in a spirited performance of Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. Ravel’s voluptuous “choreographic poem” La Valse offers the orchestra a chance to sparkle on its own, while Barenboim takes the keyboard for Brahms’ first great orchestral work, the D Minor Piano Concerto No. 1.
One of two conductors particularly associated with the IPO (the other is Leonard Bernstein), Bombay-born Mehta is a longtime champion and supporter of the renowned ensemble. He was named music adviser in 1968 and music director in 1977, then music director for life in 1981. His continuing commitment, even as he received additional appointments including the directorships of the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, remains a vital IPO component.
“It’s my family,” he says, terming the orchestra “the flagship of the nation, culturally speaking. Israel Philharmonic bears the responsibility of showing that side of Israel to the whole world.”
Founded in 1936 by Polish violinist and Zionist Bronislaw Huberman, the orchestra — known at that time as the Palestine Orchestra — was established to save Jewish musicians in Europe from the imminent Holocaust; conductor William Steinberg helped organize and prepare the ensemble. Arturo Toscanini led the premiere concert.
Completed just 16 years before IPO’s creation, Ravel’s large-scale symphonic La Valse was written for — and rejected by — Serge Diaghilev’s famed Ballets Russes. One of Ravel’s most-performed works, it premiered in Paris in 1920. Described by him as “a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz,” the piece found a choreographer in 1929 in Paris when the legendary Nijinska created a dance to it for the Ida Rubinstein Company. Later, it inspired many choreographers, including Fokine, Ashton and, most famously, George Balanchine.
The program’s Brahms and Bruch selections are among the most popular concert virtuoso pieces ever written. Brahms’ turbulent, emotionally charged Piano Concerto No. 1 (1859), a reworking of an earlier sonata he had conceived for two pianos, is in three movements, Maestoso, Adagio and Allegro non troppo.
Bruch’s best-known work, Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, premiered in 1866, then was revised by the composer in 1868 with input from violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim. Famed for its Adagio section — among the most plangent expressions in the string literature — the work is in three movements, Allegro moderato, Adagio and Allegro energetica. Throughout, it is apparent that Bruch (1838-1920) was a melodist of the first rank.
published: November 20, 2007
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