# So I've just discovered Gustavo Dudamel...



## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

...by way of a Youtube video of a Los Angeles Philharmonic performance of George Gershwin's AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, one of my favorite pieces of non-vocal music:






I'm someone who knows next to nothing about conducting, yet I just love the way the Maestro interacts with the orchestra, the pure joy he conveys. You can actually hear him laughing with delight at 14:37! I certainly have never heard anything like that from a conductor before. And I find it hard to imagine a better performance of AN AMERICAN IN PARIS than this one.

Any thoughts on the performance or Maestro Dudamel? Has anyone seen him conduct live?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I've seen Dudamel live in three concerts, mostly 19th-century "standards." Agree he's very good, one of the best at major orchestras right now. The players at the LA Phil seem to like him, which is good.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I have seen "the Dude" conduct Mahler 7. A memorable occasion.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Bellinilover said:


> Any thoughts on the performance or Maestro Dudamel? Has anyone seen him conduct live?


I have - sorta - the Mahler 8th no less, live simulcast in theaters from Caracas, Venezuela with the combined LA Philharmonic and Simon Bolivar Orchestras. It was a viscerally exciting performance, particularly given that the chorus alone was over a thousand singers, but I would have to listen again to get a better feeling for the musical quality. As to my overall opinion of him, I think that he is good and probably will become very good over the coming decades. I am reminded of something said to Simon Rattle... "The really good conductors, they only start getting good when they are 65 ... and you are no exception!" Neither is Dudamel.

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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I saw him conduct two yrs ago in LA. I flew down for a week-end trip to see him, the Walt Disney theatre, the Space Shuttle, Santa Monica and my girlfriend. Not in that order! We were seated at the back of the theatre, we were too far away to really see what was going on. We heard the North American premier of Brett Dean's Socrates. The music was too strange to know how well or not he conducted. A thoroughly fun week-end.


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## nightscape (Jun 22, 2013)

An 'okay' conductor who I anticipate will get better with more experience. I have never loved his performances enough to buy a recording. Seems like a nice guy though.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

I saw him twice at La Scala, two/three years ago: at first in a concert with Barenboim at the piano playing Brahms' and Bartok's piano concertos No.1, then conducting Verdi's Rigoletto.
I wasn't very impressed, particularly in Rigoletto, but possibly this was due to an unfair comparison with Riccardo Muti who I heard some years before in the same production...
His recordings are better imo. I like very much his Beethoven's seventh.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Who was the last conductor of the LA? Was it Essa-Pekka Salonen? If so, I do not consider Dudamel to be a good trend, as far as adventurousness. Latinos are very formal and Catholic and traditional, usually, and from an emerging third-world area, this need to fit in and be more upwardly-mobile is not going to portend well.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

GioCar said:


> I saw him twice at La Scala, two/three years ago: at first in a concert with Barenboim at the piano playing Brahms' and Bartok's piano concertos No.1, then conducting Verdi's Rigoletto.
> I wasn't very impressed, particularly in Rigoletto, but possibly this was due to an unfair comparison with Riccardo Muti who I heard some years before in the same production...
> His recordings are better imo. I like very much his Beethoven's seventh.


I actually had the idea that Dudamel was brand-new to opera; I saw that he conducted LE NOZZE DI FIGARO very recently.

I have a recording of him conducting the Beethoven EROICA symphony. I don't know nearly enough about Beethoven interpretations to be able to evaluate the performance, but on the surface at least I like how it sounds: big, bold, Romantic.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

millionrainbows said:


> Who was the last conductor of the LA? Was it Essa-Pekka Salonen? If so, I do not consider Dudamel to be a good trend, as far as adventurousness. Latinos are very formal and Catholic and traditional, usually, and from an emerging third-world area, this need to fit in and be more upwardly-mobile is not going to portend well.


I would write an answer to this but I may break the ToS.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

millionrainbows said:


> Who was the last conductor of the LA? Was it Essa-Pekka Salonen? If so, I do not consider Dudamel to be a good trend, as far as adventurousness. Latinos are very formal and Catholic and traditional, usually, and from an emerging third-world area, this need to fit in and be more upwardly-mobile is not going to portend well.


Aside from the last part, which some may find quite offensive, you might want to look at the LA Phil's concert listings. "Ms. Borda's orchestra - first under Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director, and now under Gustavo Dudamel - is flourishing as never before, artistically as well as financially. Its programming is easily the most adventurous of any major American orchestra." (from a New York Times article)


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## Aleksandar (Feb 21, 2015)

His recording of Mahler's symphony no. 5 is really fantastic.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Der Leiermann said:


> I would write an answer to this but I may break the ToS.


My thoughts exactly


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Then list the concert listings if they contradict what I said. From what I've seen on TV, Dudamel is not what I would call adventurous. As far as being offensive, I'm speaking generally, so why not post a list of what religion most South Americans belong to? I don't expect it to be Scientology.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

millionrainbows said:


> Then list the concert listings if they contradict what I said. From what I've seen on TV, Dudamel is not what I would call adventurous. As far as being offensive, I'm speaking generally, so why not post a list of what religion most South Americans belong to? I don't expect it to be Scientology.


I assume you can look up the current season's program. But here's something.

"New York, NY, June 8, 2012: ...Commenting on the Adventurous Programming Awards, Cia Toscanini, ASCAP's Vice President of Concert Music, said: "For the past 55 years, the members of ASCAP have presented adventurous programming awards to orchestras that enrich the repertory and insure that concert music in America remains relevant and alive. ASCAP salutes those orchestras and music directors whose programming demonstrates a commitment to the music creators of our time."

ASCAP's annual Adventurous Programming Awards recognize American orchestras whose past season prominently featured music written within the last 25 years.

The winners are:

Group 1 Orchestras
First Place: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director

(etc.)"


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Scarecrow, here's another.

"Here’s how 2015-16 looks:

◾12 commissions, 12 world premieres, 6 U.S. premieres, and 7 West Coast premieres. This breaks a previous LA Phil record for presentation of new music. The orchestra has never presented as many as 12 world premieres in a single season.
◾In 2015-16, the LA Phil and visiting artists will present music by 8 different Baroque composers; 5 Classical-era composers; 22 Romantics; and 72 20th and 21st Century composers.
◾That’s 7% Baroque, 5% Classical, 21% Romantic, and 67% 20th/21st Century
◾Of the 107 composers on the 2015-16 season, 42 are living. That’s 39%.
◾From those 42 living composers, the LA Phil will present 53 different works.
◾(For comparison’s sake, in 2015-16 the New York Philharmonic will present works from 12 different living composers; Chicago – 7; Philadelphia – 5. More here.)
◾An even 200 works on the 2015-16 season: 26 Baroque, 19 Classical, 53 Romantic, and 102 from the 20th/21st Century.
◾That’s 13% Baroque, 9.5% Classical, 26.5% Romantic, and 51% Modern."


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## Steatopygous (Jul 5, 2015)

Dudamel burst on to the scene with a thunderclap with the Simon Bolivar orchestra. A real poster boy for El Sistema, which really seems a marvellous thing in Venezuela and now elsewhere. 
His enthusiasm and passion are undoubted. As a technician, I am told by those who know that he has much to learn but he's off to a great start. Good now, could be great. And a great advertisement for orchestral music.
In Melbourne we have another El Sistema product as guest chief conductor, Diego Matheuz, and I'd make similar comments about him.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I've wondered if he and Ms. Borda are the inspiration for the Amazon show Mozart in the Jungle.

Regardless, he has gotten people talking. Alex Ross even devoted a chapter to him and Salonen in Listen To This.


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## Guest (Dec 16, 2015)

I just listened today to his recording of Beethoven's 3rd (my choice for Ludwig's birthday) and found it excellent. His recording of the 9th has been my favorite for some time. His Symphony Fantastique by Berlioz made me finally like that work after struggling with it for years.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Manxfeeder said:


> I've wondered if he and Ms. Borda are the inspiration for the Amazon show Mozart in the Jungle.


Don't know about Ms. Borda, but Dudamel is definitely the inspiration for the young conductor in _Mozart in the Jungle_.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I'm going to go buy Essa-Pekka Salonen's conducting Suites from Zappa's 200 Motels. That sounds adventurous. Zubin Mehta conducted some Zappa as well. If Dudamel is as innovative as you all say he is, I expect the same from him, which I doubt I will see.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Bellinilover said:


> I actually had the idea that Dudamel was brand-new to opera; I saw that he conducted LE NOZZE DI FIGARO very recently.


Actually he is more known in Milan for his opera conducting at La Scala. In the last 10 years or so he conducted Don Giovanni, La Bohème, Rigoletto, Carmen and Aida. Impressive for a young conductor (no longer so young, now).


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Dudamel is still 34 for a while, pretty young! Well, a lot younger than me.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Oh yes, than me as well!
But whe he conducted Don Giovanni he was only 25. And he made his concert debut here in 2002 (21!). 
Ein wunderkind!


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