Zubin Mehta, at 89, remains in command of Bruckner's mammoth Eigth Symphony

Zubin Mehta, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s conductor emeritus and (without exaggeration) a surviving L.A. icon, returned past play to behaviour Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony with his aged band.

The people requires a monster orchestra with a blockbuster brass conception and an assemblage susceptible of patience and goodwill. The reward is epic symphonic exhilaration.

For Bruckner, rising melodic scales, humongous fanfares with trumpets and horns and Wagner tubas galore and repeated patterns implicit and implicit by an unstoppable orchestra service arsenic injections of philharmonic endorphins. Virile young conductors swoon implicit Bruckner astatine his biggest and baddest, arsenic Mehta did erstwhile helium recorded the Eighth with the L.A. Phil successful 1974. Senior conductors question meditative euphoria successful vast, unfastened Bruckernian sonic spaces and successful his lush drawstring harmonies, arsenic an 89-year-old Mehta did Sunday day astatine Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Unable to question due to the fact that of wellness issues, Mehta canceled an quality with the Boston Symphony astatine Tanglewood past summertime and this autumn appearances successful Europe and Israel. But Mehta, who was calved successful Bombay (now Mumbai), India, has remained an L.A. nonmigratory since becoming the L.A. Phil’s youngest euphony manager astatine property 26 (Gustavo Dudamel was 28 erstwhile helium became euphony manager successful 2009).

There helium was Sunday, indomitable arsenic ever, and fixed a tremendous ovation arsenic helium came connected stage. When helium past appeared with the orchestra successful December 2024, helium led 2 programs, the 2nd being Schoenberg’s monolithic oratorio, “Gurrelieder,” which proved singular for his property and singular for his performance.

He is, this year, frailer. Seated connected a stool and seen from down successful Disney’s front-facing orchestra seats, Mehta’s gestures are excessively tiny to mostly beryllium seen astatine all. But helium led an 89-minute show of Bruckner’s symphony from memory.

Zubin Mehta leads the L.A. Phil successful a show of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony astatine Walt Disney Concert Hall.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

The Eighth has precise agelong been a Mehta specialty. He’s followed his L.A. Phil recording, an audio spectacular made successful UCLA’s Royce Hall, with ones by the Israel Philharmonic, Concertgebouw and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras. The aboriginal recordings are from the past mates decades. They’re expectedly little showy and much mature, susceptible of competing with those by European masters.

But the dependable that Mehta created with the L.A. Phil and that was captured by the British Decca statement has a magical, brash New World sparkle. I retrieve proceeding Mehta behaviour Bruckner’s Eighth successful the acoustically challenging Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and with the Vienna Philharmonic successful its storied Musikverein. In L.A. Bruckner had a caller Hollywood, proto-John Williams and adjacent a hint of Philip Glass vitality. In Vienna, it tasted similar history, though a Viennese mates adjacent to maine successful lasting country complained of artificiality.

Sunday, it was Mehta‘s indomitability connected moving and stirring display. What agelong agone looked effortless for Mehta inactive didn’t look each that hard, fixed his memory, philharmonic and cognitive. But connection with the orchestra, successful its archetypal performance backmost from an Asia tour, appeared much difficult. There wasn’t the tightness oregon brightness, for instance, that the players gave Stravinsky and Mahler successful Tokyo. There wasn’t either rather the extent oregon the immediacy of that straight-to-the-gut Zubin L.A. sound.

At times, the symphony sounded stuck. It was 10 minutes longer than successful 1974, though Mehta’s aboriginal recordings got a spot slower implicit the years. Eighty-nine minutes mightiness beryllium long, but magnitude tin beryllium deceiving. An breathtaking caller signaling of a antithetic mentation of the symphony (Bruckner revisions are an creation signifier successful their ain right) with the German Philharmonie Festiva, conducted by Gerd Schaller, clocks successful astatine a snappy 69 minutes. At the different extreme, the magnificently effusive Sergiu Celibidache erstwhile recorded a 99-minute show of the symphony with the Munich Philharmonic making Bruckner dependable arsenic infinite arsenic the universe: There’s thing similar that.

Zubin Mehta leads the L.A. Phil successful Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony astatine Walt Disney Concert Hall.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

Time-wise and Bruckner-wise, Mehta embraced the mediate way. Somewhere successful the L.A. Phil DNA remains Mehta-ized hefty cellos and basses, heart-racing brass and upper-range upwind fireworks. Mehta appeared to instrumentality that for granted. But his way is nary longer truthful clear. He’s a wanderer successful a Bruckner wood — sometimes mislaid and being lost, recently successful awe. He’s a bather successful a Bruckner ocean, the waves rolling implicit him. In the half-hour dilatory movement, harp and violins ascended melodic scales, allowing each measurement its magical, enigma stock of exultation.

Climaxes were nary longer for Mehta meant to instrumentality your enactment distant but for taking a heavy enactment and letting Bruckner seep successful to your pores. Once the astir stirring of conductors (and for his immoderate of his detractors, superficial), Mehta present simply empowers what helium conducts. And if helium tin nary longer travel, fto the satellite travel to him and the L.A. Phil. The vision, awe and emotion are champion recovered astatine location with family.