BR photo from rehearsals for last night’s and tonight’s concerts – Zubin Mehta and Anton Barakhovsky, one of the BRSO’s concertmasters
Friday, June 26, 2026
Herkulessaal, Munich
Zubin Mehta has worked in numerous centres of excellence, Munich being one. He was music director of Bavarian State Opera from 1998 to 2006, he is also Honorary Conductor of the Munich Philharmonic and a regular guest with Bavarian Radio if not since the beginning of 2020 when he conduced a memorial concert for Mariss Jansons.
To begin, the Overture to Wagner’s five-Act grand opera, Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen, set in fourteenth-century Rome. The gentle opening trumpet note and wafting woodwinds, then the sublime prayer-music took us to an inner sanctum of expression – eloquent, visionary – although Mehta’s quest for articulacy introduced a somewhat laboured progression through the faster passages, the BRSO dedicated in response, the final sprint relatively faster than what had gone before if lacking excitement.
As centrepiece, Rudolf Buchbinder, who turns eighty on December 1, played Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, as he did forty-three years ago when making his New York Philharmonic debut, with Mehta conducting, their first time working together. Mehta led this BRSO account with purpose, as well as highlighting woodwind coloration, and if Buchbinder increased/dallied with the first-movement tempo, there was nothing unprepared in the alert accompaniment and Beethoven’s cadenza was an electric burst of energy. With a slow movement that was persuasively restless, pertaining to extemporisation, and a lively ink-still-wet Finale, this was a performance summed up by Buchbinder’s encore, further Beethoven, the Finale of the ‘Pathétique’ Sonata (Opus 13), deeply studied yet of the moment.
While wondering what the “logistical reasons” were for Strauss’s Zarathustra being changed for Tchaikovsky Four, Mehta has been a seasoned campaigner for both, including two recordings of the Tchaikovsky during his LA Phil tenure, both for Decca. With BRSO this was a slow-burn account. In the first movement everything belonged architecturally although the emotional voltage was a little low, without courting controversy (save by those with limited patience), commendably played as Mehta exposed the music’s inner workings. The second movement was poetic (oboe) and soulful (strings), the latter’s pizzicatos unanimous in the next movement, like droplets of rain livening the preceding dark side. The Finale was no easy victory, rather it was all the more gripping for a strength of purpose that kept Life’s vicissitudes in view while being determined to overcome them. Zubin the Fate Defeater.
For logistical reasons, Symphony No. 4 in F minor by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky will be performed in place of Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss. We kindly ask for your understanding. [BR]
This concert is more than just a programme – it is the confluence of two musicians’ lifetime work: Zubin Mehta, whose conducting has long been characterized by foresight, warmth, and a masterful architecture of sound, and Rudolf Buchbinder, whose pianism is imbued with lightness, virtuosity, and a profound knowledge of the repertoire. Wagner’s Rienzi Overture commences in a heroic and political manner. Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto develops into a dramatic, darkly tinged oscillation between soloist and orchestra. With this special concert, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks celebrates two artists who not only interpret but also live within the music. [BR]