Zubin Mehta Conducts Sold-Out Kolarac Concert Tonight
The maestro, who first arrived in Belgrade by train in 1958, conducts Wagner and Schubert tonight. No tickets remain, and his work with the orchestra spans almost seven decades.
When Zubin Mehta stepped off the train at Belgrade’s station in 1958, he was 22 and had just won first prize at the international conducting competition in Liverpool. He reached the city center along Balkanska Street, spent his first night at the Hotel Moskva, and had his first working day and first professional engagement with the musicians of the Belgrade Philharmonic. Tonight, Friday, October 23, 2026, the same conductor, now 90, takes the podium in front of that orchestra again at the Kolarac Endowment.
Nova.rs reported on October 22 that all tickets for the concert have been sold. None of the sources we read gives a start time, so we do not print one here.
What is Mehta conducting tonight?
The announcements do not agree on the program. Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) lists two works: the overture to Wagner’s opera “Rienzi” and Schubert’s Third Symphony. Nova.rs adds Dvorak’s Seventh Symphony. Neither announcement mentions a soloist for the evening.
At the first rehearsal, as Nova.rs relays, Mehta greeted the musicians with the words: “I am very happy to be with you again. As always, it gives me great joy.” The same source records that the maestro admitted the program is demanding.
Why is this the 19th time, and not the first?
Tonight’s concert is Mehta’s 19th appearance with the Belgrade Philharmonic, and the partnership has lasted almost seven decades. According to Nova.rs, the Belgrade Philharmonic was the first orchestra to give the young conductor a professional chance.
The concert is part of the celebration of his 90th birthday, which he reached at the end of April. Per Nova.rs, the celebration began in mid-January in Mumbai, his hometown, where he also performed with the Belgrade Philharmonic. The list that followed included:
- the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra from Florence
- the Vienna Philharmonic
- the Staatskapelle Berlin
- the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Barcelona
RTS names Barcelona, Vienna, Munich and Berlin in its overview, so the lists of cities in the two announcements do not fully match. In both, Belgrade stands alongside the world’s music capitals, which is Mehta’s choice, not our assessment.
Conducting as conversation
Speaking to RTS, Mehta described his craft in a way that rarely fits into a concert preview:
Conducting is a dialogue with the musicians. I convey messages with a glance, with one hand or both, depending on the composition and the needs of the performance. Sometimes I use both hands, sometimes a movement of the wrist is enough.
The remark is more modest than the career it describes. Mehta has been music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the Bavarian State Opera. He worked with the Israel Philharmonic for five decades. He has also conducted the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics.
What remains after the baton?
In Mumbai he founded the Mehli Mehta Foundation, where more than 300 children study Western classical music. He is an honorary citizen of Florence and Tel Aviv. RTS describes helping young talent as something that matters to Mehta: the Buchmann-Mehta School operates at the Israel Philharmonic in Tel Aviv, and he is also involved with the Queen Sofia College of Music in Madrid.
We wrote about the rehearsal and the announcement of the gala concert on October 20. Today only what is certain remains: there are no tickets left, and the maestro is in town.
