Ronald Lauder and Tel Aviv
Mayor Ron Huldai |
NEW YORK/ISRAEL
PHILHARMONIC
Mayor Is A Fiddler
(Who Knew?)
| " |
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EW YORKERS like nothing
better than a 2 for 1,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said as
he welcomed the combined orchestras of the Israel Philharmonic,
conducted by Zubin Mehta, and the New York
Philharmonic, led by Lorin Maazel, in a joint benefit gala
at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center.
It’s been 20 years
since the two orchestras performed together. Maestro Mehta was
then music director of both orchestras, and sole conductor of that
concert.
Zubin Mehta with his mother Tehmi
(left) and Dr. Ruth Westheimer |
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron
Huldai said he enjoys being a mayor but wouldn’t mind being
a member of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO). “I used to
play the violin in the kibbutz where I was born,” he told me.
He said his parents came
from Poland and settled in Kibbutz Huldai, which gave them not
only a new home but also a new name.
One day the young sabra
Huldai was given a ticket to an IPO concert in Tel Aviv.
“I had to transfer
three buses to get there,” he recalled.
“My seat was in the
last row of Mann Auditorium. They featured Beethoven’s Violin
Concerto, with Isaac Stern. I was the luckiest kid on
earth. I fell in love with the music and the atmosphere, and the
taste has stayed with me ever since.”
Richard Hirsch and wife Elaine (left)
with Tzipi Tachnner and Simha Stern |
Since then he was able to
make some progress – tonight he sat a few rows further down
where “I can see and hear much better.”
Huldai recounted the
beginnings of IPO. He said Bronislav Huberman persuaded 75
talented musicians to flee Europe on the eve of the Second World
War and come to Palestine where they established an orchestra.
“It was Toscanini who
conducted the first concert on Tel Aviv’s sandy grounds,”
Huldai said.
“Despite the clouds of
war above us, we recognizer what keeps us going: our common love
of music.”
Security was extremely
intense at the IPO party at Tavern on the Green in Central Park.
Guests walked a daunting gauntlet of ski-masked sharpshooters with
automatic weapons and vicious looking guard dogs.
Ron Lauder (l-r), Kathy Steinberg,
Dore Gold and Jo Carol Lauder |
I asked a guest what does
he do? “I would like to say security,” Alfred Kingsley
replied, hinting at a thriving business. “But it’s securities.”
Wistfully he reminisced
about the zany ‘90s when “there was an IPO (initial public
offering) dinner every night. Now the only IPO dinner is this one.” |
