Dudamel, A Rare Genius

An excellent analysis of how a kid from Caracas comes to rule the Los Angeles classical music scene. The Dudamel Phenomenon gets broken down by Tim Page in this month's Los Angeles Magazine.

 

Comments

[Henry Holland]

"An excellent analysis of how a kid from Caracas comes to rule the Los Angeles classical music scene"

Esa-Pekka Salonen resigned, that's how. It sure isn't because he's a great conductor or has amazing insights in to way-beyond-tired warhorses like the Brahms symphonies or seems at all interested in music written since ca. 1930 or that he's managed to persuade the audiences here that there's a great backlog of Latino composers that we must hear.

He's all hype and floppy hair and charmingly bad English, when he does bother to show up here it's to decidedly mixed reviews. Bravo to Deborah Borda and the LAP hype machine, but I'm tired of him using the Philharmonic as a way to learn his craft.

[Elphaba]

I agree with Henry Holland. It's nothing against Dudamel, just the obvious machine that his advertising and management has become. It's a circus. Let's hope that Deborah Borda and the LAP "hype machine" (a Henry puts it) steps back a bit and lets the real musician shine for his talent, not for the image they've created.

[mmarkk]

The notion that any piece written in 1930 is more worthy of being performed than any piece written in 1929 is of course totally nonsensical. But just for the sake of argument, let's take this arbitrary year chosen by HH and look at the LA Phil programs conducted by Gustavo Dudamel in '10-'11 and '11-'12 winter seasons.
For the just concluded '10-'11 winter season of the LA Phil, Gustavo included in his programs with the orchestra the following post-1930 compositions: Slonimsky's Earbox by Adams (1996), First Symphony by Bernstein (1942), First Jazz Suite (1934) and Ninth Symphony (1945) by Shostakovich, Turangalila by Messiaen (1948), West Coast premiere of Beautiful Passing by Mackey (2008), U.S. premieres of Glorious Percussion by Gubaidulina (2008) and Fourth Symphony by Gorecki, as well as world premieres of a percussion concerto by Lieberson and a violin concerto by Golijov. The last three compositions unfortunately were not completed, but we can probably agree that Maestro Dudamel should not be blamed either for the deaths of Gorecki and Lieberson or for the tardiness of Golijov. However, Gustavo did manage to replace two of those pieces with Gorecki's Third Symphony (1976) and Dutilleux's Violin Concerto L'Arbre Des Songes (1985).
During the LA Phil's upcoming '11-'12 winter season, programs to be led by Gustavo include: Orion by Vivier (1979), Third Piano Concerto by Bartok (1945), Distant Light by Vasks (1997), Tromba Lontana and Short Ride in a Fast Machine (both written in 1986) by Adams, Fifth Symphony by Prokofiev (1944), Symphony in C by Stravinsky (1940), Grabstein fur Stephan by Kurtag (1989), as well as world premieres of Electric Cello Concerto by Chapela (2011?) and Gospel According to the Other Mary by Adams (2012?). In addition to all that, his conducting duties with the LA Phil includes a full Green Umbrella program that features world premiere of a brand new piece by Pereira and West Coast premiere of Alloy by Akiho (2009), as well as Recital for Cathy by Berio (1972).
Not counting Esa-Pekka's own works, he never conducted more than approximately that same amount of post-1930 music in any pair of consecutive seasons during his 17 years at the helm of LA Phil. And very few other principal conductors of major American orchestras include anywhere near as much recently written music into their programs these days. One may not like some of Gustavo's choices which is certainly a matter of musical taste, but to claim that as the music director of LA Phil he is not interested in conducting the orchestra in any contemporary music at all is simply preposterous.
As for a "Great Conductor" issue, how many great ones do you know right now? In spite of all my admiration for Esa-Pekka Salonen, he certainly wasn't and isn't a Great Conductor. And how many of today's greats were great at 30 years old? More to the point, how many great ones are interested in leading a Californian orchestra? And who says that Gustavo was ever interested in persuading "the audiences here that there's a great backlog of Latino composers"? Why should he? It has never been his job, partly because most likely there probably isn't such a "backlog".
When sitting in the Walt Disney Concert Hall listening to the home orchestra perform, one can't hear any hype machine functioning either there or anywhere else in the vicinity. For those who are genuinely interested in music, hype is irrelevant. It does not make any music sound either better or worse. So, just ignore the hype and come to the concerts.

[Tonia Levenson]

Tim Page is the ultimate teacher's pet, who will write want you want for a price, as he did here.