Zubin Mehta shows mastery

Conductor emeritus leads L.A. Phil in Bruckner's massive Eighth Symphony.

- MARK SWED

ZUBIN MEHTA conducts with small gestures that lead L.A. Philharmonic to make massive sounds.

ETIENNE LAURENT For The Times

Zubin Mehta, the Los Angeles Philharmonic's conductor emeritus and (without exaggeration) a living L.A. icon, returned last weekend to conduct Bruckner's Eighth Symphony with his old band.

The score requires a monster orchestra with a blockbuster brass section and an audience capable 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 over and over by an unstoppable orchestra serve as injections of musical endorphins. Virile young conductors swoon over Bruckner at his biggest and baddest, as Mehta did when he recorded the Eighth with the L.A. Phil in 1974. Senior conductors seek meditative euphoria in vast, open Bruckernian sonic spaces and in his lush string harmonies, as an 89year-old Mehta did Sunday afternoon at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Unable to travel because of health issues, Mehta canceled an appearance with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood last summer and this fall appearances in Europe and Israel. But Mehta, who was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, has remained an L.A. resident since becoming the L.A. Phil's youngest music director at age 26 (Gustavo Dudamel was 28 when he became music director in 2009).