Israel & Berlin Philharmonic: Joint Concert Tel Aviv
On the occasion of a tour of Israel by the Berlin Philharmonic the present archive material was produced and a recording made of the concert at which Germany’s flagship orchestra encountered its Israeli counterpart, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, to make music together. The tour was not only an artistic success but also a further step along the road to reconciliation and understanding between the two peoples. The Berlin orchestra gave a total of seven concerts in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. The final joint concert, which took place on 18 April 1990 in the Fredric R. Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv and featured the work of Paul Ben Haim, Saint-Saëns, Weber, Ravel and Beethoven, was the undisputed high point of the tour. The soloists were the German violinist Viviane Hagner and the Israeli clarinetist Sharon Kam. The conductor was the largely German-based Indian Zubin Mehta, who has also been the long-time artistic director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.