Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic: The Inaugural Concert
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Actor: Gustav Mahler, Gustavo Dudamel, John Adams, Los Angeles PhilharmonicDVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); German (Subtitled); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-12-15
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Deutsche Grammophon
DVD Reviews of Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic: The Inaugural Concert
DVD Review: Dudamel & LA Phil: A brilliant and exciting inauguration!
Summary: 5 Stars
I've just seen and heard via local public TV (PBS: Great Performances) the Mahler First Symphony in D Major played by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of their new music director, Gustavo Dudamel, in his inaugural concert. Clearly, the Philharmonic saw this as an historic event: it chose to perform the Mahler Symphony in the 100th anniversary year of its first US performance (December 1909, New York Philharmonic, Mahler conducting). For me, however, there was a bit of skepticism. Having heard some hyperventilated ballyhoo about Mr. Dudamel and having also read a few less favorable assessments of his orchestral leadership, I began listening with the queasy feeling I was about to be let down.
It wasn't long, though, before I was quite deeply under the spell woven by Mahler, the Phil, and Mr. Dudamel. As time went on I became ever more impressed with the whole musical experience. To be sure, it wasn't the easiest show to put on. Mahler was a composer of more than usual complexity and rife with internal conflicts, such that even the most seasoned interpreter might very well go astray. How then should such a young conductor (28), still new to his orchestra, pull off this demanding feat? And yet he did, I believe, from the opening pseudo-pastorale, through the scherzo-cum-ländler and the mock funeral march, and on to the powerful finale wherein the whole French horn section--obedient to Mahler's instruction--stood up to blare out their triumphal message. (I counted only five of the seven horns the score calls for; perhaps two were offstage.)
With Mahler, it turns out, nothing is quite what it seems to be. Even the cuckoo in the first movement gets his notes wrong, singing a fourth instead of a third, and in a most insistent way. The second movement, called a scherzo, seems at times to be almost a typical Austrian ländler (country dance)--but with a less-than-dancelike trio. The "funeral march" seems to begin with some solemnity, but its tune is a children's round (Bruder Martin) soon offset with klezmerlike popular dance motifs. Not until the last part of the last movement do all these centrifugal elements become subsumed in a grand reconciliation in the original D Major tonality not heard since the beginning. The beauty, lushness, and exquisite polish of Mahler's music are traps for the unwary, the sublime masking the ridiculous. Not until Shostakovich does such a brilliant symphonic satirist and parodist appear again, I suspect.
Mr. Dudamel, born to musical parents in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, on January 26, 1981, got an early start in "the system," through which young Venezuelans--otherwise perhaps tempted into less savory pastimes--are given musical instruction and thus inducted into constructive activities in wholesome social groups. Dudamel joined one such group--the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra--as a violinist and became its conductor at age 18). Later he conducted that orchestra in a performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony now available as a CD on this website. In 2004 he won the Mahler Conducting Competition in Germany, which accompanies a good number of other honors and awards to his credit.
Dudamel seems to have good rapport with the LA Phil: he treats the players--several greatly his senior--with respect and appreciation, and they seem to respond in the same terms. His joy and enthusiasm for music-making seem to be contagious, widely infecting the talented players of the Phil, who outdid themselves in brilliance and polish throughout this inaugural performance, which Dudamel conducted without a score, but with confidence, conviction, sensitivity, and dynamism.
The resulting performance was surely a success for all. I found it fully enjoyable, interesting, exciting, and musically satisfying, with nothing noticeably amiss or lacking. Indeed, I don't believe I've ever heard the Mahler First sounding so fresh and coherent before. Hooray!
It looks like the beginning of a beautiful relationship between Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic, one which will bless music-lovers not only in the City of Angels, but everywhere!
I recommend the Mahler First with enthusiasm. (Not having heard the other items in this concert, I'll have to remain tacit on them.)
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