jamie wax sat down with mehta before one of his final u.s. carnegie hall. ♪ >> reporter: at 82 years of age, zubin mehta still conducts with the vigor and passion that have brought him worldwide fame. i have to ask you where do you get the energy? >> the energy is love. the understanding of the music. >> you're not just a conductor who usings the baton or the hands. it's in your face. it's in your body. >> it is my profession to communicate. ♪ >> reporter: zubin mehta was born into music. his father was the founder of the bombay symphony orchestra in india. >> i heard music in my home before i spoke, so i don't remember whether i sang first or spoke gujarati, my mother tongue. and i went to a jesuit school n-bomb bay where all the teachers and priests were fans of my father, so they would ask me for tiktds for his concerts. >> did that help you or hurt you at the time. >> no. they still failed me sometimes, certain subjects. >> reporter: mehta left bombay d. study music in viennaby h w thughout the 1960s and '70s, he would conduct the montrea

in displaying his works in denmark he hopes to win the esteem of mehta's family. but the exhibition was such a radical departure from danish academic painting that it's sparked a scandal and was forced to close after just one day. returned to france. what possessed him to separate his six year old son clovis from his mother and take the boy with him when he fled denmark. did he view clovis as security against a total break with his family. could go get her fathom then that at the end of his life he would be alone for a second by all on the other side of the world. when father and son arrived in paris they endured cold and misery gauguin looked in vain for work he finally decided to sell some paintings from his collection to survive. dear mehta you enjoy the advantages of marriage without being troubled with a husband whereas i am driven from my home and how am i living between four walls a bad a table no fire no company chloe's is heroic when we sit together of an evening at our table before a bit of bread and a slice of ham he never thinks of the dainties he used

with a subdued color palette in treatment of light this portrait of his wife mehta clearly adheres to the tenets of impressionist realism. gauguin struck up a friendship with the father of impressionism come you play several who became not only gauguin's mentor but also a friend of his family a family that soon had five children. if one examines the art of peace sorrow as a whole one finds in it an overwhelming artistic drive that never falters. well painting with peace or all in point was gauguin learn to observe nature. he carefully studied his mentors use of soft nuanced colors and drew inspiration from the way he applied them to his canvas in small fragmented brush strokes. pizarro was impressed by the progress his student was making and in eight hundred seventy nine suggested he take part in the fourth exhibition of the impressionist. gauguin's garden under the snow was shown there the following year it was at that time that he met edgar degas who is striking portraits of the stock exchange was exhibited in the same room. a lasting friendship based on mutual admiration developed

mehta could bear it no longer she packed up the children and moved back to her family in copenhagen. gauguin soon joined them with plans of taking a job as a sales representative for a french tarpaulin manufacturer. but he was not warmly received. my dear piece of hope at the present time i have come to the end of my courage and resources without credit or money every day i ask myself whether i shouldn't climb to the attic and slip a rope around my neck what keeps me here is painting and painting is at the root of the problem my wife the family everyone blames me for that damned painting pretending that not earning one's living is shameful. the face in the mirror is still young. there's barely a trace of inner conflict but gauguin cannot ignore a compulsion to push the boundaries of his creativity. i am more than ever convinced that there is no such thing as exaggerated out indeed i think there is only salvation in the extreme everything in the middle is mediocre. gauguin pinned all his hopes on an exhibition he was organizing in copenhagen. in displaying his works in denmark he hope