Zubin Mehta in conversation with Martin Stegner (11 min.)

Zubin Mehta and Claudio Abbado knew each other for more than half a century, and a close friendship developed between the two musicians over this time. The first concert after the former principal conductor’s death was dedicated to Abbado’s memory. In the interview for the interval, Mehta tells Martin Stegner, violist in the Berlin Philharmonic, about their years studying jointly in Vienna, how the two young conductors managed to sneak into rehearsals of maestros like Herbert von Karajan and Karl Böhm, and how the sound of the Berliner Philharmoniker changed since Karajan’s death and Abbado’s early years as principal conductor.