JERUSALEM: Star conductor Zubin Mehta took the stage in Tel Aviv on Sunday for an emotional final performance as music director of the Israel Philharmonic, retiring after 50 years with the orchestra.
"From my heart, what this orchestra has given me .. not only this one but all the generations before them. I cannot begin to even describe what I have learned with these musicians," he told the audience during the intermission. He also famously rushed to Israel to perform in support of the country during the 1967 Six-Day War, though he would later say he opposed the settlement building that followed in the occupied West Bank."You're not usually tongue tied for words, but at this moment I'm feeling so strongly," he said in an interview aired during Sunday's intermission by medici.tv, which streamed the concert live.
His official biography says that during his tenure,"Mehta has conducted over 3,000 concerts with this extraordinary ensemble including tours spanning five continents."He was music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1962 to 1978 and of the New York Philharmonic from 1978 to 1991.