Happy 70th Israeli Philharmonic

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) is no stranger to New Yorkers, on the contrary, their concerts at Carnegie Hall sell out every time. But 2007 is a special year for the IPO as the orchestra celebrates its 70th birthday. The IPO was established 12 years before Israel’s statehood, on December 26, 1936 as the Palestine Orchestra, and changed its name with the establishment of the State of Israel. What makes the IPO unique is that it is not an exclusively “Israeli” orchestra; musicians from various ethnic, national and religious backgrounds have been joining its ranks throughout the years, making it a symbol of unity and peaceful coexistence.

A few words on the history of the IPO- The great Polish violinist and musician, Bronislaw Huberman, foreseeing the Holocaust, persuaded 75 musicians from major European orchestras to immigrate to Palestine and create what he called the “materialization of the Zionist culture in the fatherland”. The conductor of the very first concert was the greatest conductor of his time, Arturo Toscanini, who abandoned his renowned NBC Orchestra for several weeks to “render parental care to the newly born”. Since then, the IPO has performed all around the world under the baton of the best conductors of our time.

Until 1977, Zubin Mehta was presented with the title, ‘Music Director for Life’. In an interview with Charlie Rose about a month ago, he repeated that the orchestra is his family, and that he will stay in this position as long as the musicians want him to be there. Other conductors closely associated with the orchestra include William Steinberg, Leonard Benrstein, Paul Paray, Bernadino Molinari, Jean Martinon.

On the occasion of the IPO’s birthday, Charles Michener of the New York Observer followed the orchestra during its twelve gala concerts in Israel and wrote, “For two weeks, an extraordinary array of classical-music superstars, conductors Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim, Valery Gergiev and Kurt Masur; cellist Mischa Maisky; violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Gil Shaham, Julian Rachlin and Maxim Vengerov; and pianists Yevgeny Kissin, Yefim Bronfman and Radu Lupu, had trekked to Israel’s hyperkinetic hub of commerce and hedonism. Their mission wasn’t merely musical, it was also profoundly political: to lend their international prestige to an organization that Mr. Mehta, who has been its devoted music director for 30 years, has pointedly called “the positive face of Israel.” Michener was genuinely impressed with what he saw and heard and stressed that hearing the IPO perform in Israel is a totally different experience than hearing them in any other concert hall.

Well, if you can’t make it to Israel there are two IPO concerts at Carnegie Hall scheduled for January 30 and February 1, 2007.

Enjoy!

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