MembersClassical Music, Classical Israel

Likewise, I hear it told that there are fewer people who stand with Israel. Some seem to think that like classical music, Israel is an old-fashioned topic that holds no interest for the younger generation.

Yet when I attended two gala concerts by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on Christmas in Tel Aviv, the concert hall was packed. And not only with people over 50 years of age; there were many young people as well.

On the occasion of the Philharmonic’s 80th anniversary, the Italian maestro Riccardo Muti conducted the exact same pieces that the legendary Arturo Toscanini had presented in the 1936 premier concert in Tel Aviv. Among them were Brahms’ 2nd Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. On the second evening Vivaldi’s Four Seasons was on the program with four world-famous violinists, including Pinchas Zukerman (see photo).