At the launch of the paperback edition of his autobiography, The Score of my life, maestro Zubin Mehta talks about his influences in life, Indian roots and how the power of music can resolve conflicts. Devi Singh reports
I don’t know if I spoke first or sang first” says the maestro, who had a well rounded childhood surrounded by music. His house was filled with music because of his father’s practice sessions of early morning to evening. He had no choice but to become a musician. Thus was born the most celebrated conductor in the world.
That was not always the first professional choice, though, so to speak. Hailing from a middle class family, he was made to study medicine as was the norm those days. “That was almost a brainwash. You either was chosen to become a doctor, engineer or a lawyer as options were very few,” he says.
Speaking about the people who shaped him and his musical journey he says, “My father was the miracle and not me as he had no background. My parents had a textile background and making it to music was incredible. I inherited his honesty, perseverance and discipline towards music which later I found in my teacher Hans Swarowsky in Vienna.”
His younger days in India were spent during a rather politically turbulent time. Although Mehta’s father wasn’t a part of the Indian freedom movement like other Parsis, he still had rather strong views. “My father was extremely nationalistic. He would come home every night and speak against the English not letting Indians play at the clubs. He had a rage against the English and that’s why he never played a single piece of music written by an Englishman,” he shares.
Coming to Vienna in 1954 was a game changer for Mehta. He elaborates, “It was a complete shock for me. My parents sent me to Vienna only because of my cousin Dady. When I heard Vienna Philharmonic for the first time, it was as if my ears were blocked all my life and that sound became the axiom for the rest of my life.”
Even after living out of India for so long, he never thought of giving up on his Indian passport. He could have easily become an American after marrying his wife but he stresses his identity is Indian and not simply gastronomically Indian adding a few sparks of humour.
“My generation of Indians in Europe had to learn to cook as there were no Indian restaurants at that point of time. We even had to wait till the month of May to get tomatoes,” he shares. On being inseparable from his red chillies, he says, “I carry my red chilies everywhere with me, otherwise I feel as if I’m in hospital,” he quips.
Mehta has always believed in the positivity, music can bring in the lives of people. Having realised its force very early, he sees it as a political bridge. He was scheduled to perform in New York when the Gulf war broke out but instead he chose to go back to Israel for the series of free concerts, speaking about bringing Arabs and Israelis together.
On the dire need of having a concert hall in the nation’s capital, Mehta opines, “It’s a shame that there’s no concert hall in Delhi. Our sponsor did a miracle in turning a weight lifting arena into a concert hall but that can’t be done every time.”
He also offered to help with acoustics if they build a hall. Speaking about the fallacy in the belief that a concert hall can’t fit both Indian and western music he comments, “Western music needs no microphone and Indian music is played with microphone and it can all be done in the same space. People need to change that notion.”
Talking about music isolating from political sentiment, he says, “There are still some people alive in Israel with numbers on their forearms and who have heard Richard Wagner being played to them forcibly in concentration camps.
These people don’t want to be transported back to the days of terror and although we do respect them, we will still play Wagner in Israel. Musically speaking, it is absolutely important that even musicians know what the great revolutionary of the 19th century produced.”
photos Sanjeev Kumar