Mehta prevented Indo-Israeli embarrassment

Mehta prevented Indo-Israeli embarrassment

NEW DELHI (AFP): Conductor Zubin Mehta recounts in an interview to be aired here today how he stepped in to prevent a musical embarrassment when India and Israel recently established diplomatic relations.

"I saw the Indian flag go up in Jerusalem two years ago when the Indian ambassador presented his credentials," the Indian-born Mehta told the local television current affairs program Eyewitness.

"I was at the presidential palace a few minutes before (the ceremony) and I heard the Jerusalem police band rehearsing "Jana Gana Mana," India's national anthem, he said.

"And I heard them playing it twice as fast. So I ran to the conductor and said: 'I don't mean to interfere with your interpretation but you're playing this too fast and this relationship between Israel and India has taken so long to come together that I don't want it to be ruined at the first moment.'

"So by the time the ambassador came they were playing it at a decent pace," Mehta said.

Mehta is scheduled to conduct the Israeli Philharmonic in concerts here and in Bombay, his birthplace, later this year.