March 20, 2014 - Israel Philharmonic Orchestra pre-Concert Cocktail Reception
March 20th the American Friends of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (AFIPO) presented the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Zubin Mehta, was the Music Director and Conductor, and the evening featured guest artists Pinchas Zukerman on the Violin and Amanda Forsyth on Cello.
The Isaac Stern Auditorium (main concert hall) was white and sparkling from its gilded cornices and proscenium arch, and the borders of the four spectator balconies. The Orchestra, which is a great success in the world with its great talent, gets a lot of support from its Friends. The Music Director’s position is endowed by the William Petschek Familyand the American Friends is the principal underwriting of its US touring program. The President of the AFIPO is David Hirsch, who coincidentally is the father of JH himself and the Hirsch family are generationally music lovers. The thing about all of these “friends” of symphonies and opera and ballet companies is that their supporters are passionate.
Sitting in this great auditorium that Mr. Carnegie built to his wife’s wishes for their friend Maestro Walter Damrosch, I could only think of all the immortal artists and performers who have worked on that stage such as Gustav Mahler, Vladimir Horowitz, Maria Callas, Leopold Stokowski Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, as well as Mr. Damrosch and the great host of mid to late 20th century artists and performers, including last night’s great conductor Zubin Mehta.
As he enters the podium, Maestro Mehta is a man of commanding dignity, an almost royal bearing in his white tie and tails. And with a full head of hair almost completely grey now, he invites a kind of awe from his posture, which is almost military, definitely in charge, but with a certain majesty. His conducting moves are tensely economical but there remains a precise lightness in his movements that is compelling to watch, because it also takes you into the music.
The program opened with “The Star Spangled Banner” by Frances Scott Key. All American schoolchildren learned the national anthem. All, and they knew all verses too. You wouldn’t have known it in Carnegie Hall last night. I fear many of us have forgotten it enough to the point that they don’t really know the words. This was followed by the Israeli anthem “Hatikvah,” sung by CantorAzi Schwartz of the Park Avenue Synagogue, followed byOdon Partos Condertino for Strings.
Then Pinchas Zukerman came onstage with Amanda Forsyth. They performed Brahms’ Concerto for Violin & Violoncello in A minor, Op. 102 Double Concerto. After the intermission, the Orchestra returned to perform Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4 in F Minor.”
The program almost closed with a standing ovation for the artist, the conductor and his musicians. The ovation brought them back for an encore, which as Maestro Mehta explained to the audience, was a medley of songs in tribute to their composer, the late great Marvin Hamlisch. Mrs. Marvin Hamlish and guests were in the audience. Gemutlich. And that was a beautiful evening in New York.
Read MoreThe Isaac Stern Auditorium (main concert hall) was white and sparkling from its gilded cornices and proscenium arch, and the borders of the four spectator balconies. The Orchestra, which is a great success in the world with its great talent, gets a lot of support from its Friends. The Music Director’s position is endowed by the William Petschek Familyand the American Friends is the principal underwriting of its US touring program. The President of the AFIPO is David Hirsch, who coincidentally is the father of JH himself and the Hirsch family are generationally music lovers. The thing about all of these “friends” of symphonies and opera and ballet companies is that their supporters are passionate.
Sitting in this great auditorium that Mr. Carnegie built to his wife’s wishes for their friend Maestro Walter Damrosch, I could only think of all the immortal artists and performers who have worked on that stage such as Gustav Mahler, Vladimir Horowitz, Maria Callas, Leopold Stokowski Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, as well as Mr. Damrosch and the great host of mid to late 20th century artists and performers, including last night’s great conductor Zubin Mehta.
As he enters the podium, Maestro Mehta is a man of commanding dignity, an almost royal bearing in his white tie and tails. And with a full head of hair almost completely grey now, he invites a kind of awe from his posture, which is almost military, definitely in charge, but with a certain majesty. His conducting moves are tensely economical but there remains a precise lightness in his movements that is compelling to watch, because it also takes you into the music.
The program opened with “The Star Spangled Banner” by Frances Scott Key. All American schoolchildren learned the national anthem. All, and they knew all verses too. You wouldn’t have known it in Carnegie Hall last night. I fear many of us have forgotten it enough to the point that they don’t really know the words. This was followed by the Israeli anthem “Hatikvah,” sung by CantorAzi Schwartz of the Park Avenue Synagogue, followed byOdon Partos Condertino for Strings.
Then Pinchas Zukerman came onstage with Amanda Forsyth. They performed Brahms’ Concerto for Violin & Violoncello in A minor, Op. 102 Double Concerto. After the intermission, the Orchestra returned to perform Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 4 in F Minor.”
The program almost closed with a standing ovation for the artist, the conductor and his musicians. The ovation brought them back for an encore, which as Maestro Mehta explained to the audience, was a medley of songs in tribute to their composer, the late great Marvin Hamlisch. Mrs. Marvin Hamlish and guests were in the audience. Gemutlich. And that was a beautiful evening in New York.
