 Bakhtiar Dadabhoy's biography is a musical journey of world renowned musician, Zubin Mehta. The book was released on the musician's 80th birthday last year.
Mehta was born in a musical family and it is said that he learnt to sing and speak at the same time. A young Zubin gave up the thought of becoming a doctor for his love for music. He largely owes his inspiration to his father, Mehli Mehta, who founded the Bombay Symphony Orchestra at a time in India when western classical music was not given its due importance.
The book highlights Zubin's journey from Mumbai to Vienna where he learnt how to conduct, to Los Angeles, Tel Aviv and the United States. Mehta had grabbed every opportunity to grow in his art, and his love for conducting music eventually gave him the break to be a part of world famous orchestras like the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic; he was the youngest to conduct these orchestras. Zubin was also the first to simultaneously conduct the Montreal Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic - two major North American orchestras. The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra appointed him as Music Advisor in 1969 and then as Music Director in 1977 and Music Director for Life in 1981. Apart from the association with music, Dadabhoy does not forget to mention Zubin's love for cricket and his dear childhood friend, Dr Yusuf Hamied, the Chairman of pharmaceuticals company Cipla.
The biography celebrates Mehta's fascination for various musicians - Mozart, Haydn, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schonberg. It also throws in some analysis of how Zubin approached composers like Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner and Igor Stravinsky, and talks of how he was influenced by Toscanini and Furtwangler's contrasting styles of music. It describes his close friendship with pianist Daniel Barenboim, violinist Pinchas Zukerman, conductor Karlheinz Bohm, sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, among others, and their musical relationship with Mehta.
Bakthtiar Dadabhoy throws some light on Zubin's personal life and peppers the read with glimpses of the musician's life through some photographs.The book is a must read for anyone who loves music. The musician's biography is beautifully written and requires some basic understanding of the music world.
Dadabhoy's book, Zubin Mehta - A Musical Journey took eight years to conceptualize. He has authored five books in the past which includes a Dictionary of Dates, a coffee table book on JRD Tata, a collection of detailed profiles of prominent Parsis of India and the critically acclaimed Barons of Banking: Glimpses of Indian Banking history.
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