Legendary conductor Zubin Mehta is set to appear with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Cankarjev Dom’s Gallus Hall no less than three times during this year’s 72nd Ljubljana Festival. First with a performance of Verdi’s Il trovatore on 8 July, then with a gala concert of the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino on 9 July, and finally with another performance of Il trovatore on 10 July.
The gala concert will see Indian maestro Zubin Mehta, in his fifth Ljubljana Festival appearance, conduct the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in performances of three masterpieces by Ludwig van Beethoven: the Egmont Overture, Op. 84, the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 and Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92. The soloist will be the acclaimed Slovene violinist and Prešeren Fund Prize winner Lana Trotovšek.
Of all the world’s great musicians, it is Zubin Mehta who has the longest connection with Ljubljana, having first appeared here in 1959 as guest conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra at the invitation of the composer Marijan Lipovšek, the director of the Slovenian Philharmonic at the time. During his most recent visit, in 2019, Mehta received the Golden Order of Merit from the president of Slovenia, Borut Pahor, in recognition of his supreme contribution to musical performance.
On that occasion he was described in the following terms: “Zubin Mehta has been one of the most famous musicians in the world for decades. He is particularly dear to us because he is one of the few conductors of worldwide fame who might be said to have begun his remarkable career in Ljubljana: which he did when he appeared as guest conductor of the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra shortly after receiving his diploma in conducting.”
He received his early musical training from his father Mehli Mehta, a distinguished violinist and conductor who founded the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. The younger Mehta trained at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Over the course of his enviable career he has worked with numerous world-famous virtuosi and conducted the most prestigious orchestras in Vienna, Berlin, New York and elsewhere.
For more than six decades, Zubin Mehta has been an enthusiastic guide to musicians and audiences, delighting and inspiring them. His masterful conducting gave a special magic to the arias performed by the famous Three Tenors, with whom he succeeded in introducing opera to a worldwide audience in a way that no one had ever done before. In 2011 the world’s most famous conductor received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Tickets are available online at ljubljanafestival.si and at the Križanke Box Office, petrol stations and other Eventim ticket outlets.
