At that time, in 1936, an independent Israel was still a dream, its territory, known as Palestine Agency, being under British mandate. In Mumbai in India, a son was born to the Parsi musician Mehli Mehta and Tehmina Mehta who was to dedicate his life to the Orchestra.

Thus the concert celebrates the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Israel Philharmonic and the 70th birthday of Mehta.

The legendary Italian -born Arturo Toscanini, who was not Jewish, but was fiercely oppsed to Fascism, conducted the Orchestra's inaugural concert and was the first of scores of renowned artists with whom the Orchestra has formed close associations. Among them have been Emanuel Ax, Daniel Barenboim, Leronard Bernstein, Yefim Bronfman, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Arthur Rubinstein, Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman.

Mehta, named the Music Director of the Orchestra in 1969 and Music Director for Life in 1981 , first conducted the Orchestra in 1961, when both he and the IPO were just 25 years old. Mehta's years with the IPO have produced many indelible moments, such as their first concerts in Germany and India, Mehta's homeland. Other milestones were their first concerts behind the Iron Curtain in 1987 and in Russia during its emergence from Communist rule in the 1980s. In 1999, after accompanying more than 170 musicians from the Israel Philharmonic and the Bavarian State Orchestras on a pilgrimage to Buchenwald, Mehta conducted the first concert on German soil by a combined orchestra made up of musicians from the IPO and a German orchestra.