Zubin Mehta: Los Angeles Philharmonic

Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra have enjoyed a very fruitful cooperation for many years, and this 1977 recording bears impressive testimony to their very special relationship.
Founded in 1919, when Hollywood was beginning its dominion over the new world of cinema, the Los Angeles Philharmonic took a calculated risk in 1962, when it appointed a 26 year old assistant conductor as its musical leader. Thus the Indian Zubin Mehta, born in Bombay in 1938, became the youngest ever conductor to head a major American orchestra — a post he held for 16 years, until he left in 1978 to become music director to the New York Philharmonic.
A musical personality of rare format and a born orchestral leader, his profound work with the Californian orchestra resulted in a unity of sound that has gained the ensemble international acclaim that it enjoys to this day. This DVD was recorded at the height of their collaboration, and beautifully portrays the young Mehta as an emerging star on the international music scene. His joyous and evocative collaboration with the musicians results in versatile and meaningful interpretations of great works from the 18th, 19th and 20th century: Mozart’s charming early Bassoon Concerto with soloist David Breidenthal, who, after thirty years, is still one of the orchestra’s principal players; Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, where, according to Mehta, “every single section of the orchestra shines” and three works by Dvořák, displaying the orchestra’s virtuosity and colour to the utmost advantage.