Neither rain nor shine, really, nothing on earth could have kept them away. So, when the firmament let loose with strong  gusts and a drizzle on Saturday, October 11, the unusually stormy weather did little to dampen the spirits of the crowds fervently looking forward to a live performance in the outdoors by the world’s greatest operatic tenor, Placido Domingo and  the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Zubin Mehta’s magic baton.

Domingo had flown into Mumbai from a concert in a stadium in Mexico for his first-ever performance in India and while it may be true that for some in the open air stadium of the Cricket Club of India, it was but a highlight of the year’s social calendar, for true blue fans of music, the concert was an exciting new experience and the high point of Mumbai’s classical music scene.

Madrid born Domingo’s “Concert of 1,000 Columns” in Mexico, where he grew up, was in the shadow of the 1,200-year-old Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza., not Chihuahua, the place Zubin Mehta had mentioned more than once at a press conference where he was presented with a cricket bat signed by Sachin Tendulkar.

The name of Domingo’s Mexican concert refers to a temple platform at Chichen Itza crowned by rows of columns but Mehta was, clearly, having “fun” at the expense of Domingo who is also a conductor in his own right and director of  the  Washington National Opera and of the Los Angeles Opera. Mehta had also noted that the concert might have to be shortened due to Mumbai laws proscribing live music outdoors beyond 10 pm. “Unfortunately since we are put in the category of making noise we might not be able to stick to the full programme,” Mehta  had said.

Domingo’s CCI performance with soprano Barbara Frittoli was preceded by a series of concerts at the NCPA by pianist-conductor Daniel Barenboim, and violinist Pinchas Zukerman as part of the centenary celebrations of the birth anniversary of  the little-known violinist, conductor and teacher Mehli Mehta who was instrumental in founding and leading the Bombay Symphony Orchestra, the Bombay String Quartet and, later, the Los Angeles-based American Youth Symphony, an organisation that continues to this day. His two sons, Zubin and Zarin would do their father proud.

Zarin Mehta is executive director of the New York Philharmonic. Zubin Mehta is the first Indian American to be awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors (in 2006) for contributions to American culture and has just won Japan’s top arts prize, Praemium Imperiale (Barenboim is one of the past winners).

The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra which was performing for the third time in India, did four of the five shows for free. Mehta was delighted Mumbai had: “responded incredibly”. People had queued up for hours at the NCPA for tickets.

But Mehta hadn’t seemed too pleased when I asked him for his views on Mumbai’s changing skyline; after all, architecture is frozen music. But answer he did, at length, much to my delight. “I studied in a Jesuit school at Mazagaon, played cricket at the Brabourne and the Parsi Gymkhana. As a boy I remember Mumbai was one of the finest towns architecturally but today, they are demolishing the old bungalows at Cuffe Parade where I lived and selling them off to construct ugly highrises! Opposite my childhood home, a fishing village has come up; an ugly place at that, not even a romantic fishing village. And it is sad and disappointing that the city houses a huge slum with all its squalor at a place called Dharavi.”

 The “good cause” mentioned at the beginning of this piece is the Mehli Mehta Music Foundation which is currently conducting classes in two apartments and hopes to build a music academy for talented young musicians. Mehta elaborated, “We hope to raise enough funds from the corporate sector and individual donations to start building a school of international standards with teachers from abroad and within India to teach the young talent here. The Chinese, Koreans or Japanese don’t have half the cultural riches that Indians have and they study Western music. We want Indian youth to deepen their knowledge of Western classical music here. Often young musicians from India go to the West to learn music and never return. That should stop. Talent is rising in India and we want to nurture that.”

To promote the cause of music here, Mehta received support from his associates in the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony and New York Philharmonic, among others. This way, he has succeeded in bringing major soloists and conductors and orchestras like the IPO whose inaugural concert 72 years ago was conducted by the great Arturo Toscanini.

Mehta thanked all the musicians for their support. “The funds needed to organise such concerts are  huge — close to 1,50,000 euros (for four concerts). India is a great attraction for all these musicians, I didn’t have to force them at all — they were very eager to perform.”

Argentine-born Barenboim was a child prodigy who played for the German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtwängler, who subsequently wrote a letter, including the words, “The eleven-year-old Barenboim is a phenomenon ...”

Today, Barenboim (like Mehta) is an opponent of the Israeli ban on the anti-Semitic Wagner. Both have performed or tried to perform Wagner in Israel because he is “an important milestone in the history of classical music.”

Like Barenboim, Mehta too hopes to lead a concert for peace; this time bringing together Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir. Mehta informed that some two months ago, he’d held a concert of music attended by 500 Palestinians and twice as many Israelis.

Mehta recalled, “The Palestinians gave us a standing ovation. And at least for those two hours, there was a certain peace in the audience.”