Beethoven Comes to Kashmir

Brian Harkin for The New York Times Conductor Zubin Mehta, right, leading the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York, on Feb. 22, 2011.

NEW DELHIâ€" Zubin Mehta, the renowned Mumbai-born conductor of Western classical music, is going to perform in Srinagar, the summer capital of conflict-torn Indian-administered-Kashmir. Mr. Mehta, who has longed to perform in the Kashmir Valley, will have his wish fulfilled on September 7. Mr. Mehta and the famed Bavarian State Orchestra are scheduled to perform in Shalimar garden built by a Mughal emperor on the banks of Dal Lake in Srinagar.

Mr. Mehta, 77, made his conducting debut in Vienna in 1958 and is the son of Mehli Mehta, the founding conductor of Bombay Symphony Orchestra. In 2001, he was presented with Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award.

The German Embassy in New Delhi is organizing the concert in Srinagar with support from the local and federal Indian government. Around 1500 people are expected to attend the concert, where Mr. Mehta and the Bavarian State Orchestra will play Beethoven, Haydn and Tchaikovsky. “This is a wonderful cultural tribute to Kashmir and its warm-hearted and hospitable people,” Michael Steiner, the German Ambassador to India, said at a press conference in New Delhi.

“Music is a universal language,” Mr. Steiner said. “With the magical power of music, crossing geographical, political and cultural borders, we want to reach the hearts of the Kashmiris with a message of hope and encouragement.”

Last July, Mr. Steiner presented Mr. Mehta the Commander’s Cross of the German Order of Merit in New Delhi. “I wish one day I could play in Kashmir. I will cancel every appointment to come and do that,” Mr. Mehta told an Indian news agency at the reception held for him by the German ambassador after the award ceremony.

Mr. Steiner had promised Mr. Mehta to lobby with the Indian government to make “this dream of Zubin Mehta a reality,” the news agency report added. Mr. Mehta had last traveled to Kashmir in the 1970s with his family. The region has witnessed enormous changes since Mr. Mehta’s last visit, including the eruption and waning of a two-decade long insurgency, which killed more than 70,000 people.

Courtesy of German Embassy New Delhi. German Ambassador to India Michael Steiner, left, addressing a press conference along with Indian instrumentalist Pandit Bhajan Sopori at the German embassy in New Delhi on Thursday.

Germany was among the various Western countries that advised its nationals not to travel to the troubled Kashmir region in the early nineties.  In July 2011, after concluding that “the situation has now calmed down considerably and foreigners are generally not direct targets of clashes,” Germany revised its travel advisory to Indian-administered-Kashmir.

Kashmir has a centuries-old, refined musical tradition, but few residents of the mountainous region are familiar with Western classical music.  “Although the initiative sounds good, I’m not too sure whether ordinary Kashmiris would relate to the compositions of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky,” said Sheikh Mushtaq, a journalist, whose father, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, was a renowned Kashmiri musician, who played the Santoor, a complex stringed instrument. Mr. Aziz also composed “Koshur Sargam,” a book of notations of 40 classical Kashmiri ragas that form the basis of Sufism influenced Kashmiri classical music, “Sufiana Kalam.”

Waheed Jeelani, a popular composer and singer based in Srinagar, was enthusiastic about Mr. Mehta’s concert. “It is wonderful that he is playing in Srinagar,” said Mr. Jeelani, whose wildly popular song, Doyih Khaer Karus was embraced by the Kashmiris as a lament for around 8,000 people who disappeared after being arrested by the Indian troops during counter-insurgency operations. “It is inspiring for the musicians of Kashmir and brings a new world-class musical experience to the listeners here.”

Pandit Bhajan Sopori, a well known Kashmiri santoor player and musician based in New Delhi, has been roped in to facilitate Mr. Mehta’s concert. Mr. Sopori, who has performed across the world, is excited about Mr. Mehta’s concert.  “I am sure the Kashmiris will embrace the music with open hands as they are a very receptive and sublime audience,” said Mr. Sopori. He recalled performing in his native town of Sopore in the northern part of Indian-administered-Kashmir in 1984-85 to an audience of 25,000.  “After the concert, I could see tears in their eyes,” Mr. Sopori said.