WHEN IT COMES TO LOYALTY, MEHTA KNOWS THE SCORE.

Byline: Donna Perlmutter Special to the Daily News

On your mark.

Monday brings the mother of all pension-fund benefit concerts to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. But one name - Zubin Mehta - does not tell it all.

For while fans turn out in droves for the charismatic former music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on a return guest visit, this time the Bombay-born maestro who calls himself ``an honorary Jew'' has rounded up the usual Israeli suspects - pianist-conductor Daniel Barenboim, violinist Itzhak Perlman and violist Pinchas Zukerman. They comprise a quartet known - in all good fun - as the Kosher Nostra.

It was in the '70s that the musicianly friends consorted here, regaling audiences with their youthful high spirits and brash virtuosity. Then, Mehta presided over the L.A. Philharmonic; the Music Center was a meeting ground for the foursome and assorted others.

So this reunion, which also features the Israel Philharmonic joining the local band for Ravel's ``Daphnis et Chloe'' Suite No. 2, promises not just a nostalgic reminder of gatherings past, but also something of a gargantuan gala.

Mehta, who is leading the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on a two-week tour that ends here, says that ``big anniversaries serve as a spur'' for Barenboim, Perlman, Zukerman and himself to get together.

``The last time we did this,'' he says by phone from New York, ``was when the IPO (which has uniquely named him music director for life) had its 50th anniversary.''

Now the Israel Philharmonic is 60, and so is Mehta. ``We're used to celebrating birthdays together,'' he says with a laugh. ``It's been going on since we were born. But I only found out about it at 25, when I led the IPO for the first time.''

That was one year before being named director of the L.A. Philharmonic. And it has remained his most enduring relationship regardless of other posts. It was the orchestra he rushed to during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. They played a concert for the soldiers at the front.

In fact, the minute something happens to Israel, you can bet that Mehta will grab the next flight there. No sooner had the first Iraqi missile hit Tel Aviv than TV footage was showing him and the mayor examining the site of the damage.

``There's a great love between us,'' Mehta said of his relationship with the Israel Philharmonic. ``But our communication is Israeli style. In Tel Aviv, there's no such thing as quiet acceptance. Everything gets argued back and forth. The players take a lot from me because we're like family.''

Controversy, in such an atmosphere, is a matter of course. So it came as no surprise that riots actually broke out when, several years ago, Mehta tried proselytizing for Wagner, the composer whose music was championed by the Nazis and played in the very death camps survived by many in the Israeli population.

After a regular concert program some years ago, he had planned to add the Prelude and ``Liebestod'' from ``Tristan und Isolde,'' with the understanding that objectors in the audience or on stage could leave before the unlisted Wagner.

``Two musicians made a pronounced exit,'' he explains, ``one in a great show of contempt. What a tsimmes (fuss)

But I felt it was important to try. How can an orchestra jump from Beethoven and Mozart to the new Viennese composers without making the crucial link with Wagner?''

Now, a self-imposed ban on Wagner prevails, but he's more conciliatory.

``I see there's no point imposing my point of view on old people who have gone through untold anguish,'' he said. ``They should not be disturbed. Eventually, that generation will no longer exist, time will take its course. We can all afford to wait.''

Especially when there are all sorts of opportunities to do Wagner elsewhere. In March, Mehta ended a three-month stint in Chicago conducting several cycles of ``The Ring.'' Prior to that, he did the same in Vienna.

``My Israeli colleagues do likewise,'' he says, pointing out Barenboim's role at the prestigious Wagner shrine, Bayreuth (in addition to his posts with the Chicago Symphony and the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin).

Recently, Mehta himself accepted an offer to head the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Germany, starting in 1998. It represents a milestone for him, since he chose to be unattached to any organization since leaving the New York Philharmonic five years ago. At that time, he declared himself not available for any orchestra directorship in the future.

But opera?

``That's a whole different story,'' he explains. ``For years, I've wanted to head an opera house. Twice while at the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Opera (Covent Garden) asked me to take over, but of course, the timing was wrong. At last I can do this.''

So now the peripatetic Mehta, the globe-hoppingest, jet-settingest conductor of them all, has developed a capacity for staying in one place - which is what one has to do as an opera director in chief.

How does he suppose he'll like Munich? ``I've no idea. But spending 16-hour days in the opera house doesn't leave much time to find out.''

What Mehta says excites him is the challenge of the German opera system - conducting 32 operas per season in repertory, each with a single rehearsal. To do this, he explains, a conductor has to know all the scores like the back of his baton.

As for Los Angeles, he still maintains his Brentwood estate and Malibu house and, of course, flies in whenever possible to see his mother and father, conductor Mehli Mehta. Then there's the L.A. Philharmonic, which he led for 16 years until 1978 (before going on to the New York Philharmonic) and still feels close to. He conducts next week's program and returns in November for two weeks.

The truth is, Mehta loves these orchestral love-ins, whereby he puts two bands together and indulges the most flamboyant, heady sense of power-cum-camaraderie.

``We're all donating our fees to the pension funds. Two orchestras stand to gain a half million dollars each. Otherwise, I see it as a symbolic gesture of friendship.''

THE FACTS The show: ``Zubin Mehta's 60th Birthday Gala,'' with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Where: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles.

When: 7 p.m. Monday.

Starring: Joint benefit concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Tickets: $25 to $250 for concert only. Some tickets still available. For tickets to concert only, call Ticketmaster, [phone]. For tickets to the gala and dinner ($500 to $2,500), call [phone].

What else: Mehta also will lead the L.A. Philharmonic in regular subscription concerts 8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. May 5. Call Ticketmaster, [phone].

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Photo

Photo: Zubin Mehta

Conducting Israel Philharmonic