Prom 74: Vienna Philharmonic, Mehta

Zubin Mehta coasts at the Proms

by Edward SeckersonSaturday, 12 September 2009

Conductor Zubin Mehta on the cover of Time in 1968

One sure (but expensive) way of luring Zubin Mehta to London is to hire the Vienna Philharmonic, too. He and the orchestra go way back to a time when the Indian-born superstar’s smouldering good looks might have suggested Bollywood as a more likely destination than the Vienna Conservatoire. But only the most precociously gifted 20-something conductor offers up Bruckner’s 9th Symphony for his first recording with the illustrious Philharmonic. And quite a fist of it he made, too. I still return to it from time to time.

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