Archive for Noviembre, 2007
Triunfo de la orquesta bolivariana
Nov 17
Publicado originalmente en La Jornada el 17 de noviembre 2007
Un baño de agua fresca, la presentación del conjunto en Bellas Artes
Mambos, danzones, joropos, huapangos, chachachá… Antes y después de esa sabrosura sonó también la música más refinada, la de mayor grado de dificultad interpretativa que existe en todo el repertorio orquestal: la Quinta Sinfonía de Gustav Mahler.
Fueron todos ellos ingredientes de una fiesta singular: el debut de Gustavo Dudamel al frente de la Orquesta de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar, la noche del jueves en Bellas Artes.
El punto medular del milagro cultural que significa el Sistema de Orquestas Infantiles y Juveniles, que implementó hace 33 años en Venezuela el maestro José Antonio Abreu, quien estuvo presente antenoche en el concierto –así como Roy Chaderton, embajador de ese país hermano–, es un baño de agua fresca y el rescate de una forma de organización que era anacrónica hasta la aparición de esta multitud de músicos dotados de ímpetu, talento y precisión técnica increíble. Eso quedó de manifiesto con claridad pasmosa ante un teatro repleto de expectativa, entusiasmo y alegría.
La idea de un conglomerado de músicos de edad media a madura, serios, vestidos de oscuro, concentrada su atención en la batuta de una autoridad absoluta, dispuestos todos a seguir las decisiones imperativas de ese ser único frente a los muchos, la rompen estos jóvenes con la complicidad de uno de ellos, Gustavo Dudamel, quien se planta en el podio armado de batuta y autoridad, pero también de un espíritu de camaradería que no tienen los directores consagrados hasta ahora. A diferencia de ellos, Dudamel no es el único, sino que se asume y actúa como un integrante más de la orquesta. Uno entre pares. La utopía de la sociedad de los iguales.
De esa manera sonaron las Danzas Sinfónicas de West Side Story, de Leonard Bernstein, de una forma nueva, fresca, divertida y lúdica, completamente en el espíritu que concibió el compositor: Bernstein, un director de orquesta que también se asumió como compañero de batalla de sus músicos.
Ese sonido desbordado colocó la música de Mahler en una perspectiva absolutamente novedosa. Vaya, hasta las versiones reconocidas por expertos como las mejores de esta Quinta Sinfonía quedan a la par de la hondura lograda por estos muchachos. Tan hondo el adagietto de sir Georg Solti, tan sublime el de Claudio Abbado, tan elevado en manos del mismísimo Lenny Bernstein y de sirSimon Rattle, como supremo el de Gustavo Dudamel.
También quedó completamente claro, una vez escuchado en vivo, luego del asombro de la grabación de estos jóvenes bajo el sello Deutsche Grammophon, el elemento diferente que puede explicar la reticencia de los puristas: el sonido salvaje y, al mismo tiempo, delicado; brutal pero exquisito de los venezolanos, el cual acusa –lógicamente– una desmesura que, sin embargo, es coherente con el talante de su originalidad, es decir, se trata de jóvenes que interpretan toda clase de música con un ímpetu tal que lo desbordan todo, lo magnifican, lo hacen volcánico, lo sacan de madre venturosamente. Esta explosión de adrenalina, este caudal de hormonas burbujeantes, este tronido de testosterona por supuesto que no lo tienen, incluso lo envidian, los atrilistas más experimentados, no solamente por la cuestión de su edad madura, sino por la lógica de la pasión de la que es capaz un joven preciso y coherentemente desbordado. He allí el encanto del milagro Dudamel y sus muchachos.
El gran sucesor
De manera que el alto contraste entre las piezas programadas (un Bernstein mundano frente a un Mahler celestial) ofreció un paisaje singular, único en el mundo, un fenómeno artístico que ha vuelto locos por igual a los europeos que a los estadunidenses, a culturas ávidas de la calidez y del furor volcánico latinoamericano, pero también de una renovación de los productos artísticos, llámese orquesta sinfónica, repertorio y, sobre todo, el de director de orquesta verdadera y honestamente democrático. Todo en estado puro.
Las audacias interpretativas en Bernstein, la exactitud quirúrgica en Mahler, pero sobre todo la pasión, el amor patente hacia la música, es lo que está haciendo historia con estos jóvenes venezolanos. Un alto contraste impactante, dialéctico, invencible.
Si esto logra este director de 26 años de edad y esta orquesta de jóvenes igual que él, algunos de ellos todavía unos niños, habrá que esperar su edad adulta para disfrutar todavía mayores maravillas. El Dudamel maduro será sin duda el gran sucesor de quienes hoy lo tratan ya como uno de sus iguales: Rattle, Abbado, Barenboim, Esa-Pekka Salonen, con quienes comparte hoy Dudamel las mejores orquestas del planeta.
Es tan sui generis lo que hace la Orquesta Simón Bolívar con Dudamel que un melómano mahleriano preferiría no escuchar sino el silencio después de esa Quinta de Mahler tan arrasadora. Pero estos muchachos conciben la música como una fiesta participativa y aunque esta vez como acostumbran no se arrancaron el frac para calzarse la chamarra con los colores de la bandera de Venezuela, sí armaron su consabida fiesta con las piezas de regalo: el Danzón número 2, de Arturo Márquez, también presente en el concierto, un popurrí de arreglos sinfónicos a partir de canciones populares venezolanas, el Huapango, de Moncayo, como nunca se había escuchado, y el Mambo de las Danzas Sinfónicas de Bernstein con los jóvenes bailando en sus asientos y encima de ellos y haciendo bailar a sus instrumentos, todo sin perder un ápice de rigor técnico, de justeza artística.
Ese es el sentido supremo de la música, que es un ente vivo. Esta es la confirmación de la utopía vuelta realidad palpable. He aquí el milagro cultural venezolano.
He aquí la música. La vida misma.
Júbilo en Bellas Artes por un logro social de Venezuela
Nov 17
Publicado originalmente en La Jornada el 17 de noviembre de 2007
El sistema musical de ese país, noble proyecto digno de emularse en México
Desparpajo interpretativo de una cofradía ejemplar de jóvenes y apasionados atrilistas
Los venezolanos abordaron con buena dosis de jícamo y fiesta los pasajes de la obra de Bernstein
En el conmovedor adagietto de Mahler realizaron una sorprendente división de planos sonoros
Después de varios días de intensa expectación, alentada por los reportes de prensa que festejaban de manera unánime sus sonoros éxitos en otras plazas de México y del extranjero, la noche del jueves llegó finalmente al Teatro de Bellas Artes esa formidable orquesta que hasta hace unos años era conocida como la Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar y que hoy es la Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar.
Como tantas y tantas otras cosas que le debemos, es a Eduardo Mata a quien los mexicanos debemos nuestro primer contacto con esta orquesta, así como con el portentoso sistema de educación musical del cual surgió y que es, sin duda, uno de los mayores logros sociales jamás conseguido en América Latina, y un auténtico ejemplo para el mundo entero.
La orquesta venezolana ofreció en Bellas Artes un programa formado por sendas partituras de Bernstein y Mahler, y en ambas confirmó con creces todo lo que de ella se ha dicho recientemente. En el entendido de que la agrupación está de gira no sólo para hacer música de alto nivel sino también para presentarse como la joya indiscutible de lo que en Venezuela se conoce simplemente como El Sistema, el grupo llegó a México con una plantilla cercana a los 200 músicos; la buena noticia, ampliamente anticipada, es que todos y cada uno de ellos tocan, y tocan muy bien.
Al frente de esta joven, entusiasta y eficaz multitud de músicos venezolanos estuvo el igualmente joven director Gustavo Dudamel, quien recientemente ha estado cosechando merecidos y numerosos laureles a lo largo y ancho del mundo musical.
Desde el inicio de las Danzas sinfónicas de West Side Story, de Leonard Bernstein, se hizo evidente la calidad instrumental de la orquesta, así como la habilidad de Dudamel para manejar, controlar y equilibrar a un grupo más numeroso que lo acostumbrado. Entre los múltiples aciertos en la ejecución de esta partitura de Bernstein (que tiene una gran deuda con Aaron Copland), dos fueron particularmente efectivos, y tiene que ver con el carácter dual de la música.
Por un lado, los venezolanos abordaron con una buena dosis de jícamo y fiesta los pasajes de la obra en los que predominan los elementos latinos, tropicales, caribeños. Por el otro, en aquellas partes de West Side Story en las que lo relevante es el jazz y sus derivados, Dudamel y la orquesta venezolana se mostraron adecuadamente sinuosos y sincopados, tocando gozosamente con esa elusiva pero apreciable cualidad que los músicos llaman swing. Es realmente reconfortante ver y oír a una orquesta tan joven tocar con ese descaro y ese desparpajo, sustentados en todo momento por un cimiento musical inamovible.
Cátedra en el ámbito de la actitud
Después, la estupenda ejecución de la Quinta sinfonía de Mahler fue propiciada, entre otras cosas, por un inicio seguro y lleno de aplomo. A lo largo de la obra, Dudamel se mostró como un director pleno y maduro, particularmente en lo que se refiere a la articulación y ensamble de los complicados episodios mahlerianos. Para ello contó con la complicidad de una orquesta capaz de producir una rica y variada gama de timbres, así como un rango dinámico asombrosamente controlado a lo largo de todo su espectro.
Si en los episodios más extrovertidos y robustos de la obra destacaron la potencia y sonoridad de las maderas y los metales, la cuerda marcó con solidez su propio territorio en el conmovedor adagietto, en el que director y orquesta realizaron una sorprendente división de planos sonoros, difícil de escuchar en otras versiones de esta enloquecida obra. Entre otras cosas, esta orquesta tiene una sección de contrabajos portentosa.
Fuera de programa, Dudamel y la orquesta tocaron una versión fresca y extrovertida, distinta a las que solemos escuchar con nuestras orquestas, del famoso Danzón No. 2, de Arturo Márquez, a quien le dedicaron el concierto entero.
Más allá de las evidentes virtudes musicales en lo que se refiere a afinación, calidad de sonido, precisión rítmica y otros atributos apreciables, los integrantes de la Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar dieron una sólida cátedra en ese otro ámbito del quehacer musical que en ocasiones se deja de lado: el ámbito de la actitud.
Desde el primer compás del concierto hasta el último, estos chamos venezolanos tocaron con carácter, concentración, enjundia, pasión y, sobre todo, con un evidente gusto por hacer música, todo ello sustentado por el orgullo de pertenecer a una cofradía ejemplar en la que, más allá de los resultados puramente musicales (que la noche del jueves quedaron diáfanamente evidenciados), lo que cuenta es el benéfico efecto multiplicador que ha llevado la música y la esperanza a todos los rincones de Venezuela.
¡Cuánto podríamos aprender de este noble proyecto, si en verdad nos aplicáramos a ello!
Jóvenes músicos de Venezuela conquistan Estados Unidos
Nov 14
Publicado originalmente en La Jornada el 14 de noviembre de 2007
Gustavo Dudamel y la sinfónica Simón Bolívar culminaron gira triunfante por ese país
Son los artífices del cambio en el mundo de la vertiente clásica, elogia la crítica neoyorquina
El novel director de 26 años se hará cargo de la Filarmónica de Los Ángeles, en 2009
La última escala de este periplo internacional será este jueves en la ciudad de México
Nueva York, 13 de noviembre. Un joven venezolano de 26 años de edad, 160 de sus colegas y el visionario maestro de todos ellos (y miles más) han conquistado Estados Unidos.
Gustavo Dudamel culminó una gira triunfante en Estados Unidos al frente de la Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar en un par de conciertos en el Carnegie Hall –su debut en Nueva York. Anteriormente se presentaron en Los Ángeles, San Francisco y Boston donde, como aquí, cambiaron el mundo.
Considerado por los grandes maestros de la música clásica actual como uno de los directores más talentosos del momento, Dudamel encabezó la orquesta Simón Bolívar que impresionó tanto por su elevado nivel técnico como por la pasión y alegría que contagió a sus públicos de costa a costa, aquí. “Es el conductor más asombrosamente talentoso que jamás he visto”, afirma Sir Simon Rattle, director principal de la Filarmónica de Berlín, y con quien compartió uno de los programas en el Carnegie Hall.
Toda la sala se puso de pie
Al culminar su gira anoche en el Carnegie Hall, la orquesta Simón Bolívar se movía como el mar, a veces tranquila, a veces embravecida, al interpretar el Concierto para Orquesta de Bela Bartok bajo la batuta de Dudamel. El concierto se expresó con tal entrega y energía que la respuesta del público ante este regalo musical fue algo que casi nunca sucede entre los públicos neoyorquinos, famosos por su exigencia (a veces, más bien, por su arrogancia): la sala entera se puso de pie y ante una ovación interminable el director se vio obligado a regresar tres veces al escenario ante los “bravos” y expresiones de júbilo.
Cuando Rattle, director de la mejor orquesta del mundo, la Filarmónica de Berlín, tomó la batuta frente a los jóvenes para tocar la Sinfonía 10 de Dimitri Shostakovich, esa misma energía sacudió una de las grandes salas de la música mundial, provocando otra ovación sostenida de inmensa gratitud. Para celebrar, tocaron Mambo, de la obra West Side Story, de Leonard Bernstein, la cual interpretaron como un mambo real, con los músicos tomando turnos en hacer girar sus instrumentos, levantarse en conjunto para gritar “mambo”, mientras de repente dos violinistas empezaron a bailar, contagiando de movimiento a un público que –en este tipo de salas y actos– no suele mover las caderas. Triunfando así, levantando sus instrumentos al aire, concluyó la gira.
Los 160 músicos fueron a celebrar más tarde, según se enteró La Jornada, al Hard Rock Café de Times Square, por si alguien deseaba comprobar que son jóvenes.
Las reseñas de los conciertos en los medios estadunidenses a lo largo de la gira en ambas costas celebraron en tonos de puro éxtasis las actuaciones del joven maestro y sus colegas. “Es el show más grandioso del mundo”, afirmó el crítico cultural del Los Ángeles Times, e insistió que ese es un hecho, no una opinión: “Después de atestiguar la histeria masiva entre un público de 2 mil 200 personas y tras observar una orquesta lograr cosas que ninguna otra ha hecho de esa manera, ahora tengo la obligación de reportero de registrar los hechos: la Tierra circula el Sol; El Grande (el gran sismo que se espera ocurra en California) golpeará, tarde o temprano, a Los Ángeles; los venezolanos, bajo su conductor de 26 años, son el futuro”, afirmó Mark Swed.
El Boston Globe reportó que “olas de entusiasmo” inundaron la sala sinfónica, ante la “asombrosa energía y puro delirio de su música”.
Pero todos los críticos también reconocieron la cuna donde nacieron estos jóvenes: el Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles, experimento extraordinario que se ha desarrollado durante 33 años en su país, y que ahora cuenta con un apoyo más amplio que nunca del gobierno venezolano.
Fundado en 1975 por José Antonio Abreu, el “sistema” ahora incorpora unos 250 mil jóvenes, mil 800 maestros, 246 centros educativos y 125 orquestas; Dudamel y la Orquesta Simón Bolívar son sus estrellas. Este año, el presidente Hugo Chávez anunció que incrementará el financiamiento del (sistema) para lograr incorporar un millón de participantes. Gustavo Dudamel reconoce que él es quien es hoy, gracias al sistema, y ha declarado: “no estamos buscando una meta personal, siempre es colectiva. Soy producto del sistema, y en el futuro, estaré ahí, trabajando para las próximas generaciones”, comentó al New York Times (su revista publicó un extenso y excelente reportaje sobre el maestro y el sistema hace un par de semanas).
Elaboró más sobre cómo el sistema ha rescatado a miles de jóvenes, como él, al integrarlos a una gran “familia” musical, como comentó a La Jornada en entrevista con Pablo Espinosa durante su presentación de Monterrey, a finales del mes pasado (La Jornada, 29 de octubre).
Iniciativa exportable
Para el maestro Rattle, el “sistema es la cosa más importante que está ocurriendo en la música clásica en cualquier parte del mundo”, reportó el New York Times. Su ejemplo esta inspirando a casi todos los países de América Latina, junto con algunos europeos, y ahora Estados Unidos.
Todo esto, a partir de Dudamel y la orquesta, acaba de cambiar el panorama cultural de Los Ángeles –la segunda ciudad más grande del país– donde junto con su concierto se anunció formalmente que esa urbe impulsará un proyecto de educación musical con el modelo del programa el venezolano. La Filarmónica de Los Ángeles y el alcalde Antonio Villaraigosa revelaron que esto se iniciará en una sola zona marginada, pero que el objetivo a largo plazo es otorgar un instrumento musical y un lugar en una orquesta a todo niño y joven que lo desee en esa ciudad.
Dudamel estará ahí para dar forma a la iniciativa: ha sido contratado como el próximo director musical de la Filarmónica de Los Ángeles, a partir de 2009.
A la vez, también están cambiando la música clásica aquí. Swed, el crítico de música de Los Ángeles Times, considera que estos venezolanos son gran parte del cambio en el mundo de la música clásica, y su forma particular de abordar la música, muy suyo, contiene una “amenaza al status quo”. Argumenta que los venezolanos “lo han hecho solos, no han ido a (la famosa escuela de música) Julliard, y Julliard no ha enviado a masas de instructores a ellos. No han tomado clases (…) con músicos famosos. Su éxito implica que toda la estructura de clase de la música clásica ahora está en peligro de deshacerse”.
Así, Dudamel y sus 160 colegas, y sobre todo el maestro de todos ellos, Abreu, están cambiando al mundo, como comprueba su paso por Estados Unidos. Para cualquiera en México que lo dude, podrá comprobarlo esta semana: la próxima y última escala de esta gira internacional es la ciudad de México, este 15 de noviembre, en el Palacio de Bellas Artes.
Youth Handles the Serving, in Large, Robust Portions
Nov 14
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published: November 14, 2007
Publicado originalmente en The NY Times
Simon Rattle leads the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in an encore performance of "Mambo!" - Jennifer Taylor for The New York Times
Inevitably, the Sunday afternoon concert at Carnegie Hall by the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela became an occasion to assess the work of the ensemble’s talked-about and fast-rising music director, Gustavo Dudamel, making his New York debut.
But the orchestra itself was the center of attention on Monday night in the second and final program at Carnegie Hall. The news was the technically astonishing and powerfully communicative playing of these dedicated and accomplished young musicians, who range in age, roughly, from 15 to 25.
Of course, Mr. Dudamel, just 26, who began the concert conducting Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, deserves enormous credit for the high level and intensity of this youth orchestra, which he has led since 1999. And the players proved that they could adapt and work with a master in the second half of the program, when Simon Rattle conducted Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in E minor. Yes, amid these young Venezuelans, the youthful Mr. Rattle, all of 51, still looked like an elder statesman of music. Context is everything.
Gustavo Dudamel leads the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in a performance at Carnegie Hall - Jennifer Taylor for The New York Times
The orchestra’s appearances were officially part of Carnegie Hall’s Berlin in Lights Festival. Mr. Rattle and members of the Berlin Philharmonic, which he directs, have been mentors to Mr. Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar orchestra. The link may have been a stretch. But who cares? The audience that awarded both performances frenzied ovations would have been there under any circumstances.
Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra was partly fashioned to show off virtuosity. The piece brought out the best in Mr. Dudamel and his players. There are some 200 musicians in the orchestra, and most seemed to be crowded onto the stage for this performance. In climactic fortissimo passages of both scores, the sheer richness and visceral power of the sound was awesome.
Typically, the more players involved, the harder it is to play together. But these musicians perform with such discipline and well-honed precision that they can go for maximum expression and follow the lead of their impetuous conductor.
Mr. Dudamel has a keen ear for instrumental coloring and musical character. In the opening of the first movement the hazy tremolos in the high strings had an eerie allure. When the clarinet played a sultry melody over a quietly restless orchestral backdrop, the ensemble gave the music an undulant, almost Latin American tinge.
The third movement, an elegy, was transfixing and nocturnal, at once calming and unsettling. The perpetual-motion fifth movement often seems the least substantial music in the score, a toss-off, high-energy finale. But it was the highlight of this performance, played at daring tempos with rhapsodic fervor, even in the intricate fugato outbursts, where it’s easy for overlapping lines to go astray.
In Shostakovich’s daunting 10th Symphony (1953), Mr. Rattle empowered the players to take risks and play all out, leaving matters of control to him. And there was control in this formidable performance of Shostakovich’s 60-minute score. The brooding and moody first movement, with its long passages of ruminative counterpoint, unfolded with grim yet inexorable force. In the second movement — brutal, driven, full of raucous bursts of dissonance, thought by some to be a parodistic portrait of Stalin, who died while Shostakovich was composing this score — Mr. Rattle proved every bit as wild and daring as his exuberant young players.
When it ended, Mr. Rattle, with not a trace of British reserve, dived among the players and engaged in a hugfest. Not to be outdone by Mr. Dudamel, he led the orchestra in a reprise of the hit encore from Sunday afternoon, the “Mambo” from Bernstein’s “West Side Story.” Mr. Rattle kept turning to the audience to lead shouts of “mambo!” as the Venezuelan musicians played and danced their hearts out.
Berlin in Lights? I don’t think so.
Concierto en Ciudad de México
Nov 13
Gustavo Dudamel dirige a la Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana, Simón Bolívar
Sala:
Palacio de Bellas Ártes. México, México.
Programa:
Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story Danzas Sinfónicas
Gustav Mahler: 5ta Sinfonía
Arturo Márquez: Danzón Nº 2
Pedro Elías Gutiérrez: Alma Llanera
José Pablo Moncayo: Huapango
Fecha: 15/11/2007
Berlin in Lights festival, Nueva York
Nov 11
Gustavo Dudamel dirige la Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar en el “Berlin in Lights festival”, Nueva York
Sala: Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium. Nueva York, Estados Unidos.
Página del programa en el sitio del Carnegie Hall
Programa:
Hector Berlioz: Le Carnaval romain Overture
Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 21
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5
Arturo Márquez: Danzón No. 2
Leonard Bernstein: Mambo from West Side Story
Alberto Ginastera: Malambo from Estancia
Frédéric Chopin: Waltz in A Minor, Op. 34, No. 2 (played by Mr. Ax just before intermission)
Fecha: 11/11/2007
Berlin in Lights festival, Nueva York
Nov 10
Sir Simon Rattle dirige a la Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar en el “Berlin in Lights festival” Nueva York
Sala: Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium. Nueva York, Estados Unidos.
Página del programa en el sitio del Carnegie Hall
Programa:
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
Dimitri Shstakovich: Symphony No. 10
Encore:
Leonard Bernstein: Mambo from West Side Story
Fecha: 12/11/2007
Fountain of youth
Nov 9
Waves of excitement sweep Symphony Hall under baton of Gustavo Dudamel, 26
Publicado originalmente en el Boston Globe
By Jeremy Eichler
Globe Staff / November 9, 2007
Maybe it was the moment between pieces on Wednesday night when some 200 young musicians onstage simultaneously ditched their formal wear and donned bright yellow-red-and-blue jackets, transforming Symphony Hall into a riot of color. Or maybe it was when, after a triumphant night of playing, they joyously raised their instruments into the air as a full house stood for yet another ovation. Or more likely, it was from the first real climax of the opening piece, Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra, when a wiry young conductor flicked his wrist and unleashed a massive surge of orchestral electricity. That’s when it became obvious that this was not a typical concert in Symphony Hall. This was the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, with its shaggy-haired, newly-minted-celebrity maestro Gustavo Dudamel.
In case you haven’t heard, this youth orchestra and this conductor are the most buzzed-about pair in classical music today. And for once, it’s not the kind of buzz driven by glossy promotion or some scandalous album cover. The genuine excitement behind the SBYO and Dudamel is driven by two things: first, the astonishing energy and sheer exhilaration of their music-making, and second, the inspiring national program in Venezuela referred to simply as El Sistema, which has given instruments to poor kids across the country and placed them in a network of orchestras starting in preschool. About 250,000 kids are participating; 75 percent live below the poverty line.
The SBYO is the top orchestra of El Sistema, and its playing is something that has to be experienced live to fully grasp (the group’s two CDs on Deutsche Grammophon don’t quite cut it). That applies as well to Dudamel, who at the tender age of 26 was recently named the next music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Viewed in person, his conducting has a searing intensity when called for but also a fantastic dexterity that allows him to keep this huge orchestra’s many gears on track with more success than anyone could expect. Nor did he seem to be conducting for the audience’s benefit, which can always be a concern with a conductor this physically gifted. Every gesture was organic to the music at hand.
But it’s not right to single out the conductor alone here; this orchestra plays with a spirit that is heard all too rarely, if ever, in the professional music world. Whatever passion a conductor might project from the podium can often dissipate after the first few stands of strings. With the SBYO, the vitality lofts in from the back of the sections and rises up from the floorboards (one violinist kept levitating out of his chair). The playing had a blazing heat at key moments in the Bartok and in the finale of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, but also remarkable clarity.
Sometimes when young musicians tear into the music they love, there is a certain scrappy quality that creeps in. Little of that here. One could quibble about a few tempo choices in the Beethoven or the pacing of certain transitions in the Bartok, but the bigger picture was so persuasive, nit-picking seems beside the point.
After intermission came a rhythmically charged traversal of Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story,” and then the group really let loose in three encores: a reprise of Bernstein’s “Mambo” and works by Arturo Marquez and Alberto Ginastera. In the middle of playing, they started spinning their cellos and basses, twirling their trumpets and violins, dancing and even trying out a Fenway-style wave. Ovations followed every single piece. It was also notable that Dudamel did not take a single bow from the podium but received the applause from within his group.
Another catalyst of spontaneous ovations was José Antonio Abreu, the visionary 68-year-old Venezuelan who founded El Sistema and who preaches a gospel of “spiritual affluence.” The crowd rose at one point at the mere mention of his name. He deserves it many times over, and the empirical success of his work in Venezuela is having ripple effects that could potentially shift the prism on arts education in this country.
New England Conservatory, which presented the concert with help from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Celebrity Series of Boston, held a public symposium Wednesday afternoon at which Abreu spoke. He also dropped by a morning seminar in which experts from across the field were discussing the big question: What insights can be drawn from El Sistema and applied to the United States? Similar discussions are happening around the country. They are vitally important, and in the meantime, this orchestra is the best possible emissary for the cause.
Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeichler@globe.com.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
The New Guy: Gustavo Dudamel
Nov 8
Publicado originalmente en LA Weekly el 8 de noviembre de 2007
Disponible en línea en el Sitio Web del autor
By Alan Rich
Strength in Numbers
Chances are that the Philharmonic’s new music director, when he takes over the podium a couple of years from now, will not ask the orchestra to perform in patriotic jackets, nor will he ask the players to fling them out into the audience after the last encore. He is unlikely to demand that they twirl their instruments between solos, or toss them skyward at the slightest provocation. Yet these were some of the shenanigans in the final moments in the second of two concerts last week by the Simón Bolívar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and its – soon to be our – switched-on conductor, Gustavo Dudamel. With a capacity crowd in the hall tearing down the virtual goalposts and another onstage matching them cheer for cheer, you had to be there to experience the pandemonium. By any standard – social, political, musical – it was totally deserved.
There was a lot of talk about youth orchestras here last week. There was a symposium in which important people – the mayor, Philharmonic people, education people – spoke about the obvious benefits of full-fledged symphony-size orchestras as an extracurricular activity, moving on to forming serious ensembles, like the Bolívar and the Sibelius Academy that was here two weeks ago and the UBS Orchestra still to come, with players ages 18 to 24. We have such orchestras here, like the sleepy American Youth Symphony, whose free concerts at Royce Hall draw big, sleepy crowds; what we don’t have – yet – is a firecracker leader to inspire such an orchestra with a sense of its own importance, to its community, to its players. That will take a few more symposiums.
Here comes Dudamel, and the best news is that he’s real, a serious and dedicated musician who’s seized by the music he’s performing, and that he’s already a practiced hand in forming great and spirited young orchestras. His orchestra numbered something like 200, against our own Philharmonic’s 106. Just the sight of all those chairs on the empty stage was enough to turn you – or me, at least – dizzy. Dudamel led the big works on both programs – the Fifth symphonies of Beethoven and Mahler – from memory; okay, he’s recorded them both and is entitled to know them by heart. What’s important is the way both these works have come to live within him. The baton technique, mostly a forward thrust, is clear and not particularly graceful. His left-hand motions are more fascinating: also not graceful, not swooping, but with each finger delivering a separate message.
Of the two symphonies, I was more won over by the Mahler; I’d held off hearing the disc. Disney Hall offered no resistance to the mighty onslaught of 11 double basses, eight horns and similar bloated figures across the board. There was a fine, light humor in the pacing of the scherzo, and an even lighter touch in the folksy moments of the finale. The notorious – yet noble - adagietto was, to my taste, paced exactly right.
Beyond the inevitable wayward horn here and bassoon there, the Beethoven performance seemed to these ears somewhat waterlogged by the weight of it all. Even with the double-bass contingent whittled down to 10 – from the previous day’s 11 – I found the sound of four horns (for Beethoven’s two) and I-forget-how-many bassoons (for Beethoven’s most interesting scoring, his bassoon pairing) just a shade murky, no matter how excellent the performers and how spirited the splendid young conductor’s choice of tempos. But that crescendo out of the gloomy reaches of the scherzo, and the impact of the trumpets announcing the triumphant arrival at the golden frontier of C major, could not have been more thrilling. That’s why we need orchestras, and conductors, and Beethoven.
Olé
The ersatz conviviality of the Bernstein West Side Story dances had begun the first program (of two); now, following the Beethoven on the second, it was time to dig seriously into where these marvelous music people had gleaned their effervescence. Music by Mexico’s Arturo Márquez and José Pablo Moncayo and Argentina’s Alberto Ginastera – all throbbing with hot rhythms and that major/minor delicious uncertainty that colors the lifestyle south of the border – completed the printed part of the program. Then the lights went down for a few seconds; when they came up again, the whole orchestra sported the Venezuelan finery that I’m sure you all saw on YouTube.
Then who should show up but John Williams, to tone things down a peg with theStar Wars theme. (Surely, even he knows better music than that.) Then Gustavo – excuse me, Maestro Dudamel – got his podium back for three more numbers, including a replay of the Bernstein “Mambo” number from the night before, with the crowd getting happier and more insistent and the jacket biz . . . For all I know, they may still be there.
In the audience sat José Antonio Abreu, the distinguished gentleman who, with a group of musical advisers, dreamed up the National System of Youth Orchestras – known as El Sistema – that has now given Venezuela 130 youth orchestras comparable to Simón Bolívar, countless children’s orchestras and more than 30 adult orchestras, many of them peopled by children out of impoverished neighborhoods, given their instruments by the state. Put this together with the chorus that came up a few years ago to perform Golijov’s St. Mark’s Passion and you have a compelling picture of a national musical subsidy that needs a lot of study in this country. Perhaps more than symposiums, even.
The people’s choice?
Nov 8
Publicado originalmente en Boston Phoenix el 08-11-07
Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
Gustavo Dudamel, in case you hadn’t heard, is the 26-year-old Venezuelan conductor who’s going to save classical music. He’s the product of the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela, the fabulously successful initiative that’s enrolled some 250,000 youngsters, most of them from poor backgrounds. In 2004 he won the Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition in Bamberg. He’s been taken under the wing of Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Simon Rattle. In August 2006, he conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. (The program was Bernstein’s Candide Overture, Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, and Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat.) Now he’s been tapped to succeed Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, starting in 2009. In his New York Times Magazine profile (“Conductor of the People”) two weeks back, Arthur Lubow wrote, “There was a sense that she [LA Philharmonic president Deborah Borda] had snaffled the Man o’ War or Secretariat of the classical-music racetrack.”
Last night at Symphony Hall, under the joint auspices of New England Conservatory, the Celebrity Series of Boston, and the BSO, Dudamel made his Boston debut at the head of his own Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, which is touring the US. Back home, this orchestra is (or was) known as the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar; its members are all young, but putting the word “youth” in its title smacks of apology, or of inviting modest expectations. If, on the other hand, the idea is simply to attract young audiences, it’s working: Symphony Hall was packed (what’s the last time you saw people holding “Need tickets” signs outside?), the crowd younger than usual, and more Hispanic. It was also quieter than usual, and, glory be, there was no applause between movements.
The originally announced program was Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra (a BSO commission that made its debut in Symphony Hall back in 1944), the Orchestral Suite from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, and “selections from Latin American music,” but someone must have decided that it needed more ballast: Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony (which the orchestra performs on its first Deutsche Grammophon release, along with the Fifth) was added, and the Latin American music relegated to the encores. That made for a three-hour-plus evening. Dudamel didn’t take the podium till 8:15, and the second half of the concert was preceded by 15 minutes of acknowledgments, proclamations, and presentations, much of it delivered through a malfunctioning mic.
What’s immediately striking about the Simón Bolívar, apart from its youth, is its size — more than 100 strings in the program, and close to that number on stage. The violins were deployed in the “traditional” 20th-century fashion, massed on the conductor’s left; this worked out fine for the Bartók, where at one point in the third-movement Elegia the violins are pitted against the violas, less well in the Beethoven, which was written for an antiphonal arrangement of first and second violins. Dressed, like the male orchestra members, in a suit, Dudamel conducted with a baton but no score.
Dudamel’s virtues and shortcomings were palpable throughout the Concerto for Orchestra (his live performance of this with the LA Philharmonic is available as a DG digital download), and so were the players’. This is young people’s musicmaking. Shaking his hair and jumping up and down, Dudamel offered cogent phrasing and a powerful rhythmic impetus; the orchestra responded with a big, full, visceral sound. Attacks were ferocious, balances were mostly pellucid (with some great lower-string moments), and there were delicious woodwind solos like the agrodolce oboe in the Introduzione opening movement. The players swayed in their seats, every bit as animated as their conductor. It was all fresh but not always wise. The snickering chatter of winds in the second-movement “Giuoco delle coppie” (“Game of Couples”) should sound like a murder of crows; this was an exaltation of larks. (Dudamel did observe Bartók’s not-at-all-intuitive phrasing in the brass chorale that followed.) Slow openings meandered (the beginning of the Elegia should recall the beginning of Bartók’s opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle); transitions didn’t always register. The parody section (Bartók is making fun of the opening march movement of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony) of the fourth-movement “Intermezzo interrotto” was very parodic, but after the tuba raspberries the fffcrashing cymbals made a parody of the parody. The loud, hectic Finale had almost too much energy, with the ideas all bouncing off one another — you couldn’t hear the grinding allusion to Stravinsky’s Sacre du printemps in the cellos and basses. Plenty of bang for your buck, but not much nuance.
Live, the Beethoven Seventh had the frisson that the DG recording lacks, and a golden Viennese tone, and revolution was, rightly, in the air, but it kept disintegrating into random violence. The reading was high-strung, high-octane (concertmaster Alejandro Carreño kept rising out of his seat), passionate but not always poetic, at times bombastic in its tub-thumping timpani. The transitions didn’t improve; textures clotted, and long-term logic was lacking. The Allegro con brio finale was a blur. I doubt any orchestra this size can play so loud and so fast and realize Beethoven’s intentions. I reveled in the noisy ecstasy right along with Dudamel, the orchestra, and the audience, but by the end I felt bludgeoned.
Worse was to come. You wouldn’t think any outfit could mess up West Side Story — particularly a Latin one, with the players snapping their fingers and shouting, “¡Mambo!” — but this was Day-Glo Bernstein, all coarse, assaultive brass, and too fast for the girls (or the guys) to swivel their hips. I kept thinking I was at a David Mamet play. At the end, Dudamel posed motionless with his baton, keeping the audience suspended, before letting it drop ever so slowly.
For the encores, the lights dimmed and the orchestra members hastily donned zip-up jackets with a replica on the Venezuelan flag on the front. Huge applause, and why not? They played a Latin dance suite, and then a less classical, more uninhibited take on West Side Story’s high-school high jinks, and then more dance music. The strings twirled their instruments, the girls jumped up and shimmied, the brass waved from side to side, everybody started popping up. By the end, they were all marching around, even launching an assault on the podium; Dudamel disappeared and the players took command.
Is this the future of classical music? Making Bartók and Beethoven sound more spontaneous and less fixated on the score — more like jazz — is good. Making them sound like rock in order to appeal to young people is not so good. As for Dudamel, at 26 he can hardly be expected to possess the maturity of a Fritz Reiner or a Carlos Kleiber. But after the Times has touted you as “the most-talked-about young musician in the world” and you land a great job in LA (as opposed to the old-fashioned European slog of rising through the provincial opera houses) and get to hang out with Tom Cruise and David Beckham and Joe Torre, does the hype get in the way of the hard work?
Review: Fiery Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra sets Bernstein ablaze
Nov 6
If you were to judge the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela solely from the exhilarating video clip that’s been making the rounds on the Internet – the one of the young players and their music director, Gustavo Dudamel, kicking the stuffing out of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mambo” at London’s Royal Albert Hall in August – you might easily conclude that this is one of the most dynamic and daring ensembles around.
And if you caught their remarkable concert in Davies Symphony Hall on Sunday night, you’d know you were right.
Appearing as part of the San Francisco Symphony’s Great Performers Series, Dudamel and his orchestra unleashed an extraordinary musical fireball, which they then shaped into the form of music by Shostakovich, Bernstein and more. The level of musical sophistication and eloquence on display was astonishing, but so too was the sheer energy involved.
Crowded into Davies like so many supercharged particles – the orchestra tours with an unprecedented 180 musicians, of whom only 140 could fit onto the stage – these players seemed to be straining to cut loose.
And although the concert, which ran more than 2 1/2 hours, included plentiful stretches of lyrical and translucent playing, its real glories came when the performers mustered a huge and rhythmically compelling noise – in the aforementioned “Mambo,” in the terrifyingly explosive second movement of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, and in ferocious excerpts from Alberto Ginastera’s “Estancia.”
For observers of the music scene, Sunday’s concert was a double introduction. On the one hand, there was the orchestra itself, the pinnacle of Venezuela’s practically unparalleled government-sponsored system of music education (José Antonio Abreu, the musician and economist responsible for its success was in Davies Sunday, and received many waves of tribute from the players).
On the other, there was Dudamel, who became music director of the orchestra at 17 and now, at 26, is probably the most talked-about conductor in the world. Two years from now, in a fascinatingly high-stakes gamble, he is set to become music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
To some extent, these two facets turned out to be one. To witness these musicians in collaboration is to understand just how closely their respective sensibilities are bound up with one another.
Dudamel’s approach to the music – his taste for fiery tempos and emphatic accents, the brash impetuousness of his phrasing – is mirrored in the sound of the orchestra, with its agile strings and focused, slightly aggressive woodwinds and brass. And it’s rare to see an orchestra and conductor so rhythmically attuned, as though Dudamel’s beat were only a confirmation of what every member of the orchestra already knew in his or her bones.
In interviews, Dudamel talks about the conductor being a member of the ensemble, but he’s not alone in that kind of rhetoric. What’s rarer is to see a conductor actually walk the walk: Not once in the course of the evening did Dudamel take a solo bow. Every acknowledgment of the audience’s tumultuous applause was in the bosom of the orchestra.
As for whether Dudamel will be able to bring a similar kind of sorcery to his new post – whether, to put it crudely, he really is all he’s cracked up to be – every indication on Sunday suggested that the answer is yes. This was the work of an imaginative and superbly virtuosic conductor (he returns to Davies in March to guest-conduct the San Francisco Symphony in music of Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff).
Conducting the entire program from memory, Dudamel infused every movement and every measure with a feeling of urgency and clarity – not a single moment seemed like a throwaway. But at the same time, he avoided the obvious danger of overstressing things and losing a sense of priorities.
In the Shostakovich, he gathered up the potentially sprawling strands of the expansive opening movement – a marathon that in the wrong circumstances can swamp the rest of the symphony – and sorted out the most important elements from the subsidiaries. The result was a discourse whose shape and direction never flagged, and in the subsequent movements Dudamel deftly elicited the music’s blend of dark humor and blazing self-assertion.
The Symphonic Dances from Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” occupying most of the second half, were done with wonderful fluency and freedom as well as utter rhythmic precision. The program concluded with a selection billed only as “music from Latin America,” which turned out to be a sampling of dance-flavored pieces by Ginastera, Arturo Márquez and Pedro Gutierrez.
The encores were truly that – reprises from earlier in the evening of Bernstein’s “Mambo” and Ginastera’s “Malambo” – but now done up with exuberant dance moves and flashy twirls of the instruments, by players who had donned windbreakers in the blue, red and yellow of Venezuela. The mood was one of triumphant pride, well-earned and widely shared.
Review: Fiery Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra sets Bernstein ablaze
Nov 6
Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Publicado originalmente en el San Francisco Chronicle
If you were to judge the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela solely from the exhilarating video clip that’s been making the rounds on the Internet – the one of the young players and their music director, Gustavo Dudamel, kicking the stuffing out of Leonard Bernstein’s “Mambo” at London’s Royal Albert Hall in August – you might easily conclude that this is one of the most dynamic and daring ensembles around.
And if you caught their remarkable concert in Davies Symphony Hall on Sunday night, you’d know you were right.
Appearing as part of the San Francisco Symphony’s Great Performers Series, Dudamel and his orchestra unleashed an extraordinary musical fireball, which they then shaped into the form of music by Shostakovich, Bernstein and more. The level of musical sophistication and eloquence on display was astonishing, but so too was the sheer energy involved.
Crowded into Davies like so many supercharged particles – the orchestra tours with an unprecedented 180 musicians, of whom only 140 could fit onto the stage – these players seemed to be straining to cut loose.
And although the concert, which ran more than 2 1/2 hours, included plentiful stretches of lyrical and translucent playing, its real glories came when the performers mustered a huge and rhythmically compelling noise – in the aforementioned “Mambo,” in the terrifyingly explosive second movement of Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, and in ferocious excerpts from Alberto Ginastera’s “Estancia.”
For observers of the music scene, Sunday’s concert was a double introduction. On the one hand, there was the orchestra itself, the pinnacle of Venezuela’s practically unparalleled government-sponsored system of music education (José Antonio Abreu, the musician and economist responsible for its success was in Davies Sunday, and received many waves of tribute from the players).
On the other, there was Dudamel, who became music director of the orchestra at 17 and now, at 26, is probably the most talked-about conductor in the world. Two years from now, in a fascinatingly high-stakes gamble, he is set to become music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
To some extent, these two facets turned out to be one. To witness these musicians in collaboration is to understand just how closely their respective sensibilities are bound up with one another.
Dudamel’s approach to the music – his taste for fiery tempos and emphatic accents, the brash impetuousness of his phrasing – is mirrored in the sound of the orchestra, with its agile strings and focused, slightly aggressive woodwinds and brass. And it’s rare to see an orchestra and conductor so rhythmically attuned, as though Dudamel’s beat were only a confirmation of what every member of the orchestra already knew in his or her bones.
In interviews, Dudamel talks about the conductor being a member of the ensemble, but he’s not alone in that kind of rhetoric. What’s rarer is to see a conductor actually walk the walk: Not once in the course of the evening did Dudamel take a solo bow. Every acknowledgment of the audience’s tumultuous applause was in the bosom of the orchestra.
As for whether Dudamel will be able to bring a similar kind of sorcery to his new post – whether, to put it crudely, he really is all he’s cracked up to be – every indication on Sunday suggested that the answer is yes. This was the work of an imaginative and superbly virtuosic conductor (he returns to Davies in March to guest-conduct the San Francisco Symphony in music of Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff).
Conducting the entire program from memory, Dudamel infused every movement and every measure with a feeling of urgency and clarity – not a single moment seemed like a throwaway. But at the same time, he avoided the obvious danger of overstressing things and losing a sense of priorities.
In the Shostakovich, he gathered up the potentially sprawling strands of the expansive opening movement – a marathon that in the wrong circumstances can swamp the rest of the symphony – and sorted out the most important elements from the subsidiaries. The result was a discourse whose shape and direction never flagged, and in the subsequent movements Dudamel deftly elicited the music’s blend of dark humor and blazing self-assertion.
The Symphonic Dances from Bernstein’s “West Side Story,” occupying most of the second half, were done with wonderful fluency and freedom as well as utter rhythmic precision. The program concluded with a selection billed only as “music from Latin America,” which turned out to be a sampling of dance-flavored pieces by Ginastera, Arturo Márquez and Pedro Gutierrez.
The encores were truly that – reprises from earlier in the evening of Bernstein’s “Mambo” and Ginastera’s “Malambo” – but now done up with exuberant dance moves and flashy twirls of the instruments, by players who had donned windbreakers in the blue, red and yellow of Venezuela. The mood was one of triumphant pride, well-earned and widely shared.
E-mail Joshua Kosman at jkosman@sfchronicle.com.
Concierto en Boston
Nov 5
Gustavo Dudamel dirige la Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar
Sala: Boston Symphony Hall, New England Conservatory. Boston, Estados Unidos.
Programa:
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
Ludwig van Beethoven: Seventh Symphony
Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story
Also on the program is a selection of South American works
Fecha: 07/11/2007
Buzzy Star Dudamel, 26, Brings His Kid Orchestra to Disney Hall
Nov 5
Publicado originalmente en Bloomberg.com
By David Mermelstein
Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) — No one at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Friday night will likely forget the sight of 170 young musicians in matching yellow-blue-and-red windbreakers whooping it up onstage. The capacity crowd could have been cheering a winning sports team.
The occasion was the second of two concerts featuring Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra in its U.S. debut. The windbreakers, complete with white stars and evoking the Venezuelan flag, were donned for the encores, which included the theme to “Star Wars” conducted by its creator John Williams.
Otherwise, the youngsters (aged 12 to 26) were in the hands of their star boss, Gustavo Dudamel, just 26 himself, and their music director since 1999.
The buzz surrounding Dudamel has been immense, and deservedly so. The adventurous people who run the Los Angeles Philharmonic last spring named him to succeed Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director at Disney Hall. So this concert had special significance. In two years, the Venezuelan will be maestro of this stunning house designed by Frank Gehry.
Though these young players won’t be relocating to L.A., Dudamel’s success in the City of Angels is also theirs.
Like his charges, Dudamel rose through the ranks of “el sistema,” shorthand for Venezuela’s vaunted music-education system, which teaches instrumental music to about 250,000 predominantly poor children and sponsors roughly 125 youth orchestras. (In addition to producing Dudamel, el sistema has supplied the Berlin Philharmonic with double-bassist Edicson Ruiz, 22, the second-youngest player in its history.)
Mixed Program
As de facto cultural ambassadors, Dudamel and his orchestra understandably wanted to show off their country’s achievement, and their programs effectively combined familiar works by Beethoven, Mahler and Bernstein with underappreciated scores from Latin America’s rich orchestral tradition — in this case by Jose Pablo Moncayo, Arturo Marquez and Alberto Ginastera.
The musical results, though inherently inspiring, were mixed. With so many musicians on stage — never fewer than 100 and often half as much again — subtlety was not an option. In the Latin works, the muchness at least enhanced the fun, with the orchestra’s blaring brasses, swooping strings and assertive percussion nearly blowing the roof off Disney Hall.
Regulating dynamics proved next to impossible, even for a skilled technician such as Dudamel, a man with a clear beat and sensible gestures. Like his hero Bernstein, whose “Symphonic Dances From West Side Story” opened Thursday’s concert, Dudamel isn’t afraid to jump when the music moves him, and his undulant body language and shaking black curls provide appealing showmanship.
Modernist Twist
More depth than dash is required for Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, which followed the Bernstein. There were moments to savor, as Dudamel pointed up an unanticipated modernist twist or martial turn in the score.
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony the following night was more gratifying. Ironically, given the ages of the players and conductor, this was an old-school account: blunt and big, if not very nimble and flexible. Yet who could resist the energy of this storming-the-heavens account? Not many at Disney Hall.
Gustavo Dudamel leads the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra at Symphony Hallin Boston on Nov. 7 and at Carnegie Hall in New York on Nov. 11 and 12. He also conducts the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall from Nov. 29 through Dec. 4.
Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, the greatest show on Earth
Nov 5
Publicado originalmente en: latimes.com el 05 de noviembre de 2007
The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela conducted by Gustavo Dudamel is the greatest show on Earth. That was obvious Thursday night at the first of the astonishing orchestra’s two concerts last week in Walt Disney Concert Hall. Critics, of course, aren’t supposed to say such things in reviews, so I quoted Simon Rattle.
But after witnessing the mass hysteria among an audience of 2,200 on Friday night, and after observing an orchestra perform feats no orchestra has in quite the same way, I now have a reporter’s obligation to state the facts. The Earth revolves around the sun; the Big One will, sooner or later, hit L.A.; the Venezuelans, under their 26-year-old conductor, are the future.
For Thursday’s ambitious program, Dudamel demonstrated that a really big band (160-plus) could float like a butterfly and sting like a bee (at least one definition of “the greatest” I accept) — and also penetrate deeply into deeply penetrating symphonic thought. This was a spectacular, stirring and flashy show.
Friday’s program was even flashier. Dudamel began with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The orchestra was large, far larger than is fashionable in these historically informed days, but not humongous.
There were certainly plenty of basses to dig in ferociously. Dudamel, who conducted everything without scores both evenings, inhabited the orchestra. A wild enthusiastic swoop of his arms elicited a wild enthusiastic swoop of strings. This was bold big Beethoven, but the playing was much too joyously alive to be old-fashioned big Beethoven.
Care must be taken not to condescend to these kids. Some are as young as 12, although most look to be in their early 20s (26 is the cutoff age). They are not great young musicians, they are world-class players, period. They provide uniquely visceral thrills as an ensemble. But in two evenings, I also heard more wonderfully expressive oboe, flute, clarinet, bassoon, violin, horn and trumpet solos than I could count.
The second half of the evening, devoted to Latin American music, was when the audience began, understandably, to lose it. The orchestra swelled to what must have been close to 200. Jose Pablo Moncayo’s Mexican classic “Huapango” and the more recent and just as lively and populist “Danzon No. 2″ by the contemporary Mexican composer Arturo Marquez, were dazzling in their rhythmic vitality and flirtatious dynamics.
Two years before he will become the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s music director and in but two visits to Disney, Dudamel has already begun to daringly exploit the hall’s acoustics. The Simon Bolivar’s soft playing is as impressive as its earsplitting climaxes. The crescendo at the end of Marquez’s “Danzon” went from nothing to an earthquake in a handful of expertly gauged seconds.
The ballet suite from Ginastera’s “Estancia,” written in 1941 for the American Ballet Caravan, closed the formal program with scenes from Argentine country life. Dances for farmhands, cowboys and the like were made into an Imax-sized epic.
The hall then went dark for 15 seconds. When the lights came up, the players all had on Venezuelan flag jackets and the hall had become a riot of color. A fan of John Williams, Dudamel had asked the composer to conduct his theme from “Star Wars” as a surprise encore.
Appearing as in awe of these players as they were of him, Williams conducted as though he were driving a supercar for the first time, knowing that the slightest touch on the accelerator could produce a galvanic force.
For the “Mambo” from “West Side Story” and the “Malambo” from “Estancia,” yet another surge of electricity sent shock waves through orchestra and audience. In perfect control yet utterly free, the musicians danced, twirled their instruments in the air, swayed in great waves. From the Renaissance to the present, composers have dreamed of exactly this — the mastery of chaos.
Finally, Dudamel walked into the audience and brought onstage Jose Antonio Abreu — founder of El Sistema, the program that trains Venezuela’s young musicians — and enticed him to conduct the country’s national anthem, which was played with rapt fervor. Many in the audience sang along.
Afterward, I heard it suggested that, in a gesture of international goodwill, these players might then have ended with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Instead, they took off their jackets and flung them into the roaring crowd.
As I said, this is the greatest show on Earth.
Gustavo Dudamel is maestro of all he surveys
Nov 4
If you want to know why there’s been so much buzz about the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and its 20-something conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, you can find the answer on YouTube. The site has a thoroughly intoxicating clip of the young musicians playing the “Mambo” in Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances From ‘West Side Story’ ” at last summer’s BBC Proms in London. Actually, they don’t play it so much as they use it to tear up the Royal Albert Hall stage, summoning an energy and bravado alien to most orchestras. They dance, they grin from ear to ear, and they play like champs. It touches off a near-riot in the audience.
Dudamel and the orchestra are now officially the most exciting thing in classical music. They are a testament to “El Sistema,” the amazing network of musical ensembles and education programs that target Venezuela’s poor children. The Bolívar orchestra is its crown jewel and Dudamel its most famous alumnus, and they are in the midst of their first major American tour. It brings them to Symphony Hall on Wednesday, in a concert presented by New England Conservatory in association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra andCelebrity Series of Boston.
Over the last year or so, the excitement surrounding the frizzy-haired Dudamel has blossomed into all-out frenzy. Following a string of highly acclaimed guest appearances, he was the surprise choice to succeed Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a post he takes up in 2009. He’ll still be at the helm of the Bolívar orchestra, as well as Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony. Incredibly, he will be only 28 years old. Rarely has one musician’s potential seemed so limitless.
I first spoke to Dudamel last year, before his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut at Tanglewood. At the time his wife translated his answers from Spanish because he wasn’t comfortable with English. A few days ago I caught up with him again by phone from Los Angeles, the tour’s first stop. He needed no translator this time. A tumult of activity surrounded him as he rushed from one commitment to the next – a “60 Minutes” crew had caught up with him there – but he sounded confident and improbably relaxed as he discussed the tour, his future, and the orchestra he calls his family.
Q. Your career has really exploded over the past year . . .
A. [sound of Dudamel laughing]
Q. Why are you laughing?
A. Oh, it is funny! Because I feel the same, you know? I’m the same guy.
Q. Are you?
A. Absolutely. With more responsibilities, with the opportunity to work with the best orchestras, the best artists. But I feel [like] the same guy from Barquisimeto, you know?
Q. Talk about how the last year has been for you.
A. Very exciting. To work here in LA as music director – this is a big step and a wonderful opportunity. I debuted with the Vienna Philharmonic, also [the] Chicago [Symphony Orchestra]. I’m learning a lot – a learning year.
Q. Have you felt overwhelmed by the attention you’ve gotten since you accepted the job in Los Angeles?
A. You know, I don’t feel any pressure.
Q. Really?
A. No. They are a wonderful orchestra, and here is a wonderful organization. It’s not only Gustavo Dudamel, it’s all the musicians of the orchestra, the committee of the LA Philharmonic, we have a wonderful staff. I think we’ll be a wonderful team . . . We need to work with young people, we need to go to the poor communities to give music to these people. This is one of my goals in LA, and they are open to doing these things. You know, the rest is history.
Q. Can you describe the musical relationship between you and the Bolívar orchestra?
A. We are a family. I played in the orchestra from 1994, and now I’m the conductor, from 1999. [There are] wonderful connections – magic, special. I feel really comfortable with the orchestra, like I’m in my house playing some music with my best friends and my family. This is my orchestra here.
Q. Do you communicate differently with them than with another orchestra?
A. I work on the same level, in the same way. But of course the communication is different. Sometimes I don’t need to tell them some things, because they already know what I want. And I know what they want.
Q. What does it mean to be touring in the United States with this orchestra?
A. It’s very special because this is our first time in the United States in a serious tour. We played at the UN but never in the biggest halls of the United States. . . . This is one of the best periods [for] the orchestra, because it is in wonderful shape. They have wonderful energy, and we want to bring this to the United States to show what we are.
Q. Do you feel as though you’re representing El Sistema?
A. Absolutely! We are a product of the system and this is our goal, to represent what it can accomplish. A little part, because we are only 240, I think, and the system is thousands and thousands of people.
Q. How did you choose the music for the tour?
A. It’s a difficult tour, because we play the Shostakovich Tenth, Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, Mahler Fifth, Beethoven Fifth and Seventh, the “West Side Story” Symphonic Dances. . . . It is a big challenge for the orchestra, but it’s the best, because you can improve a lot with this music.
Q. Do you think the players are nervous?
A. No! They are happy. [laughter]
Q. What do you think a young conductor can bring to an orchestra as the music director?
A. I love music. Music for me is my life, it’s not my job. And I think this is something very important to bring – the love for the music. . . . And I’m a very open person, and a very happy man. This is very important for making good music – being open.
Q. Do you worry that having these three jobs will be too much?
A. Oh, no. For me it’s better, because this makes my life more stable. I’m traveling a lot – almost every week a different place. And having these three wonderful orchestras, I will have three beautiful homes.
Q. So you’ll guest conduct less?
A. Absolutely. I will conduct other orchestras, but [not as much as] I’m doing now.
Q. Do you ever feel as though this is all happening too fast?
A. No. I told you at the beginning, I feel the same. I don’t feel any pressure. I love to conduct, you know. I love to be with musicians. I told you – the rest is history.
Concierto en San Francisco
Nov 3
Gustavo Dudamel dirige la Sinfónica de la Juventud Venezolana Simón Bolívar
Sala: Davies Symphony Hall. San Francisco, Estados Unidos.
Programa:
Dimitri Shostakovich: Sinfonía # 10 en mi menor, Opus 93
Leonard Bernstein: Danzas Sinfónicas de West Side Story
Arturo Márquez: Danzón # 2
Leonard Bernstein: Mambo para Danzas Sinfónicas de West Side Story
Alberto Ginastera: Malambo para la suite Estancia, Opus 8a
Fecha: 04/11/2007
Dudamel is absolutely revelatory
Nov 3
Publicado originalmente en latimes.com
Simon says it is the most important thing happening in classical music in the world. “Simon” is Simon Rattle, music director of the Berlin Philharmonic. “It” is El Sistema, the youth orchestra program in Venezuela.
“It” might also describe the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, the cream of a 250,000-student crop, which began its first U.S. tour at Walt Disney Concert Hall on Thursday night under its music director, Gustavo Dudamel. And if this incredible orchestra hits San Francisco, Boston and New York with the same revelatory effect as at the first Disney concert, our country, with its poor music education, may never — should never — be the same.
Happily, the orchestra and Dudamel, who will become music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009, are hot properties. TV’s “60 Minutes,” which gave El Sistema its first big blast of publicity eight years ago, was on hand in L.A. to film a follow-up story on Dudamel, who at 26 is a spectacularly rising star worldwide. The Philharmonic has been under an international barrage of interview requests ever since its Easter surprise announcement of Dudamel’s appointment.
Both Thursday’s concert and another on Friday night had sold out quickly, and Internet ticket scalping had reached near Ian McKellen-like proportions. When an orchestra of 160 slowly filed onto the Disney stage Thursday, the applause grew and grew. When Dudamel walked out, he might have been a rock star. When the concert ended, he might have hit a home run to win the World Series.
The program — Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” and Mahler’s mighty, 70-minute Fifth Symphony — wasn’t slight. Dudamel has ideas about these pieces, and they are mostly about how to make every incident in the scores either heart-stoppingly thrilling or heart-meltingly tender, how to shape a melodic line in the most comely fashion and how to coax a rhythmic phrase into dancing its way to every corner of a concert hall.
The stage was crammed full of youngsters, ages 12 to 26. Individually these are first-rate players (the horns alone would be the envy of many a brand-name band). But they also form an organism like no other. In furious passages, masses of string players swayed in their seats and wind players bobbed their heads as if guided by a single animating life force.
“West Side Story” is a story that resonates with these young Venezuelans. Many come from poverty, and all know about gangs on the streets of their capital, Caracas. Dudamel’s accents were like startling gunshots; the brutality of the “Rumble” felt all too immediate; “Somewhere” was almost unbearably melancholic; and “Mambo” was a mambo, a real one.
The concert was delayed after intermission to allow Jose Antonio Abreu, who founded El Sistema 30 years ago, to get to the hall (his plane landed at 7:30). His devotees describe him as a saintly snake charmer who has managed to get the program funded through 10 administrations, with Venezuela’s current leader, Hugo Chavez, the latest eager supporter.
Mahler’s Fifth was then played as life-and-death music, which is how Mahler intended the symphony, what with its angry funeral opening, its waltz-goes-mad Scherzo, love letter Adagietto and neurotic high spirits Finale.
Dudamel’s Mahler is not neurotic. But it is violent, and it is exalted, and it is, at many moments, exquisitely beautiful. The power and ferocity in the first two movements astonished, given that this was an ensemble at least 50% larger than the normal Mahler orchestra. But also, given how expressive and clear the inner lines sounded, a law or two of physics must have been overcome.
Dudamel has this symphony in his blood — he conducted without a score. Still, no 26-year-old can be expected to get it all. The Scherzo, so exciting moment to moment, didn’t entirely hold together. The slow movement didn’t feel too slow, as it does on his new recording, but the last movement did slightly. Then again, neither Leonard Bernstein nor Michael Tilson Thomas truly mastered this symphony until they were more than twice Dudamel’s age.
No matter, the performance caught Mahler’s spirit, and it caught the spirit of a generation of young people who have what it takes to make the world better.
Politically, we bicker with Chavez’s Venezuela. A little rehearsal time in L.A. was lost because the visiting orchestra’s instruments were held up by U.S. Customs, which wanted to go through them with a fine-tooth comb.
But musically, Venezuela leaves no child behind, and the results are an inspiration to us all.
A Prodigy at the Podium
Nov 3
Publicado originalmente en el San Francisco Chronicle
Joshua Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic
Saturday, November 3, 2007
All prodigies are astonishing, but conducting prodigies even more so. Conducting, after all, is a matter of personal authority, of persuading other people – not just chessmen or numbers or your fingers on an instrument – to do what you want them to, and the idea of a child or even a teenager managing that trick seems absurd.
Gustavo Dudamel, the Venezuelan wunderkind who makes his first appearance in Davies Symphony Hall on Sunday night at the helm of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, has been conducting since he was 12.
Go figure.
“This is something you’re born with,” Dudamel said with charming matter-of-factness during a recent interview here on the eve of the orchestra’s American tour. “To have a strong personality, to convince an orchestra of your view of the music – this is part of the art of conducting.”
Now 26, Dudamel has been exercising that art in increasingly visible ways since his victory in the 2004 Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg, Germany, thrust him into the international spotlight.
The Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra – Venezuela’s national youth orchestra, which Dudamel has conducted since he was 17 – tours widely and has made two well-received CDs for Deutsche Grammophon. Dudamel himself has guest-conducted throughout Europe and the United States (he returns to Davies in March to make his first appearance with the San Francisco Symphony, conducting music of Stravinsky and Rachmaninoff).
And in just two years, he’s poised to succeed Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which signed him up in April while other American orchestras were still scrambling to find a pen.
That precipitous move has inspired both admiration and second-guessing among observers of the orchestra world, even though the Philharmonic has a long history of appointing music directors who are still young. But Dudamel’s obvious combination of gifts – his technical prowess, musical imagination and sheer charisma – as well as his instant rapport with the orchestra during a couple of guest appearances, convinced the management that this was the right gamble at the right time.
If Dudamel himself has any apprehension about the course his career has taken, he isn’t letting on – although that’s to be expected. As he can attest, one prerequisite for conducting an ensemble like the Berlin Philharmonic or the Vienna Philharmonic is the ability to bluff your way through potentially daunting situations.
“You need to be secure when you are dealing with an orchestra, and have the security to say, ‘I want to have it this way.’ You need to be strong. If you are” – here he adopts a submissive, wheedling tone – ” ‘Maybe we change this,’ that is not the way.
“Of course, you have to be prepared, and you have to study a lot. But when you are in front of an orchestra with a tradition of hundreds of years playing this music – they can eat you.”
To spend 15 minutes in conversation with Dudamel – and that was all he could spare earlier this week after a glitch at U.S. Customs delayed the arrival of the youth orchestra’s instruments and with them, the start of a scheduled rehearsal – is to understand some part of how he keeps from being eaten.
Like many a conductor, Dudamel is smaller than he appears on stage – he stands no more than 5-foot-5 – but his lithe frame exudes a whirl of tireless energy. He is physically beautiful, with a long nose, a mop of unruly curls and extended dimples that crease his cheeks when he smiles, which he does frequently. And his conversation, held in halting but capable English, is a mixture of unaffected charm and dynamic presence.
The same combination of seductiveness and easy authority seems to pervade his relations with the 200-plus members of the Bolívar Symphony. As they rehearsed Mahler’s Fifth Symphony earlier this week, he stopped frequently to correct balances or tweak a detail of phrasing, and he often seemed more inclined to cajole than to discipline.
The reason isn’t hard to guess – until 1999, when he became its teenage music director, he played violin in the orchestra.
“Maybe 70 percent of the players in the orchestra were there when I was a violinist,” he said. “When they gave me the position of music director, of course that was a change. But I think they still see me as the same guy, just with other responsibilities.”
In any case, the idea of a conductor as a commanding taskmaster separate from the orchestra is one that Dudamel sees as outmoded.
“My vision of the conductor is that we are part of the orchestra. There was a period – think of Furtwängler or Toscanini – when the conductor was like a dictator or a boss. But with new conductors like Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado or Esa-Pekka Salonen, there is a wonderful connection with the orchestra. And I love to be part of this generation.”
Both Dudamel and the Bolívar Symphony are products of Venezuela’s extraordinary music education program, known as el sistema, or the System. Founded more than 30 years ago by a visionary economist and conductor named José Antonio Abreu, it aims to alleviate the effects of poverty and limited opportunity through a network of free music lessons and dozens of youth orchestras.
Today, a quarter of a million students, many of them from crime-ridden backgrounds or even homeless, participate in the program. There are musical success stories like Dudamel or the double bassist Edicson Ruiz, who at 19 became the youngest player to join the Berlin Philharmonic, but the societal benefits are just as impressive.
The Philharmonic has just announced a project called Los Angeles Youth Orchestra, intended to mimic el sistema on a more modest scale, although it remains to be seen how much civic and financial commitment the orchestra can muster from the community. At a symposium Monday to announce the project, Dudamel talked publicly about his own early experiences as a musician.
He was born in the city of Barquisimeto, the son of a trombonist who played in salsa bands in the area. He began studying music at 5, and planned to play the trombone as well. His arms were too short, though, so he took up the violin instead.
All along, conducting held a special allure for Dudamel. He says he used to arrange his toys in rows, put on a recording of a Beethoven symphony, and conduct them. “They always played very well, but still I would sometimes stop the record and correct something.”
His first chance to lead actual musicians came when he was 12, and the conductor was late for a rehearsal by the string ensemble he was playing in. Rather than sit idly by, he picked up a baton and began the rehearsal; when the conductor arrived 15 minutes late, he let Dudamel finish the rehearsal and then made him the group’s assistant conductor.
In the ensuing years, Dudamel conducted with almost fanatical vigor, making his way through large swaths of music – which is another reason he seems unfazed by his sudden burst of fame. Asked about any weaknesses in his command of the standard repertoire, he seemed slightly put out.
“Remember that I had the opportunity to conduct a lot in Venezuela,” he replied. “From 1997, I was conducting almost every week. So I have a repertoire.
“But of course, you never stop learning. Now I am conducting Beethoven’s Fifth, but in a few years I will feel differently about it. And there are always new things to learn – Schubert, maybe Bruckner, and new composers like Ligeti.
“It’s a big universe. This is the life of a conductor.”
