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In Reply to: Considered opinions on Zubin Mehta.....past/present/future? [with an article to help] posted by High-end Dreamer on November 15, 2002 at 15:40:52:
When I heard Mehta live with the LAPO in the mid sixties I remember enjoying the performances. He was building an orchestra and the standard repertoire was new to him.Mehta faded fast, however. He got a lot of criticism in LA, much of which I agreed with. "Cheap", "Shallow" and "Clueless" were terms which cropped up in the LA Times. The orchestra building stopped short; one wag insisted Mehta had turned a third-rate band into a second-rate band.
I have heard numerous Mehta performances of his usual programs all of which supported the "Shallow" and "Clueless" evaluations. He seems to lack any concept of the music at all, and his orchestras sound raw and wayward, with poor ensemble.
Just my humble opine, but it's safe to say the novice could avoid Mehta's work completely and miss nothing.
Follow Ups:
"...it's safe to say the novice could avoid Mehta's work completely and miss nothing."Well, it seems that Decca/London recorded classical music with natural timbre, lifelike dynamics (micro/macro) and expansive soundstage... long after Mercury, RCA and others abandoned minimalist techniques that made earlier efforts legendary. Mehta/ LAPO/ Strauss: Alpine Symphony (1975) is a fine example of the enduring Decca/London sound. Perhaps artful engineering masked composer Strauss' "shallow" score and conductor Mehta's "clueless" interpretation, but the resulting LP (London CS-6981) to my novice ears is nonetheless spectacular.
And, for example, Mehta's Decca/London (1973) Puccini: Turandot (w/ Sutherland/ Pavarotti) is beyond reproach, is it not?
I stand by my opinion, minor Strauss and minor Puccini notwithstanding. Mehta has taken a modicum of talent a very long way.
more informed than my own, that's for sure!Sorry to learn that "Turandot" is minor Puccini, though . Act III, cosi comanda turandot - nessun dorma , is my favorite 7 minutes of emotive opera, thus far .
I am a "La Boheme" kind of guy (try Beecham with deLosAngeles and Bjorling--yummy!)
All very true.The article fails in one critical respect. It fails to ask the two most important questions - who cares and why bother?
Maybe Mehta was a great conductor when with Decca, maybe he has some great recordings left in him. But really, there is no shortage of great conductors and great performances. It's hard to see how the bombastic Mehta could possibly have anthing not already bettered, so who cares if he could still make good recordings?
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