Feb. 23, 1966 The Montreal Star by Eric McLean

Mehta Bids Au Revoir To Montreal Orchestra

The Montreal Symphony's program at Place des Arts last night was the last one Zubin Mehta will conduct here for some time. He leaves this week on a sabbatical year, although he will be with the orchestra on its tour of France, Switzerland, and Belgium next year.

[...]

The Morawetz Sinfonietta, which was given its world premiere in this performance, is writing of a kind that we find very rarely among today's composers. This is obviously the work of a man who has lost none of his faith in the symphony orchestra as a medium of expression, and if the strings are left out of the picture in this composition it is only because he was intrigued by the problem of writing for brass, woodwinds and percussion alone. It remains orchestral music of a particularly skilful kind, in which nothing is accidental, and everything sounds as he imagined it. The texture is rich, and it is obvious that he has an expert knowledge of the capacities of the instruments. There were one or two perilous moments in the last night's performance, but Mehta was always in control, and I'm sure that Dr. Morawetz could not have been happier about the spirit with which his new work was played.

[...]