LOVE ANGELES

The Dude of LA

By: Mark Swed - Let’s see. There was the buildup. There was “¡Bienvenido Dudamel!” at the Bowl and an opening night on global TV. And the media feeding frenzy. And Drubbing Dudamel, The Tour.

He’s the future of classical music. He’s not the future of classical music. He’s the new Leonard Bernstein. He’s the old Zubin Mehta. He’s the hot Venezuelan. He’s the scary other. The Los Angeles Philharmonic is re-inventing the symphony orchestra. No, it isn't. The Los Angeles Times doesn't get it.

City noir, indeed

Perhaps what Gustavo Dudamel really is is a mirror. In youth-oriented, increasingly Latin Los Angeles, a city of adventure and celebrity, he is, well, the ultimate celebrity conductor. Consider the reviews on the Phil's eight-city national tour: In the home of orchestral dysfunction, Dudamel’s L.A. Phil poses no threat to the leaderless Fabulous Philadelphians. In status quo D.C, Dudamel is understood as fabulous but status quo. In sophisticated San Francisco, Dudamel is no Michael Tilson Thomas Mahlerian. In soon-to-be Muti’s Chicago, we are barbarians at the gate. In New York, nothing’s ever simple.

So what did Dudamel really do in his first season as music director of the L.A. Philharmonic (besides, of course, attract huge admiring crowds and hoards of journalists)? A lot of new music, for one thing. He also tirelessly proselytized for music education. Mainly, though, he kept audiences, musicians and exhausted administrators never knowing what to expect next.

Photo: Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Youth Orchestra of L.A. at his season-opening Hollywood Bowl Concert in October. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times.

Gustavo Dudamel Goes Hollywood Officially

LOS ANGELES TIMES - "And so, Saturday, it came to pass. After all the extraordinary buildup — the billboards and the bilingual media frenzy — 18,000 people from every corner of the city came to the Hollywood Bowl to bear witness.

He goes by many names: Gustavo the Great. Gustavissimo. The Dude. Some have taken to referring to the new music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic by his initials, thus: G*D.

It’s all too much, we critics judiciously caution. But in his first return to the Hollywood Bowl since making his U.S. debut there in 2005, the Dude pulled it off. Joy reigned. On Saturday, Gustavo Dudamel concluded "¡Bienvenido Gustavo!" — the 28-year-old Venezuelan conductor’s first concert as the L.A. Philharmonic’s music director — with a Beethoven Ninth to be remembered.

This was not so much a Beethoven Ninth for the ages (he has a lot of competition), as it was a performance of Beethoven’s last and largest symphony, an iconic work of classical music with a cosmic scope and a call for universal brotherhood, for multicultural Los Angeles at this moment.

Perhaps, most important, this was Beethoven for all ages. Dudamel made his first appearance on stage with the nearly 100 children of YOLA Expo Centre Youth Orchestra, who have had instruments in their hands only a little more than a year. As they sawed through a version by Steven Venz of Beethoven’s "Ode to Joy" from the Ninth’s last movement, they showed determination and pride. They had something to prove and they proved it, and that was an indescribable thrill.

Leonard Bernstein once said that we can never express too much joy when it comes to Beethoven, and Dudamel took him at his word. He needed some time warming up. Dudamel is not all Dionysian all the time, but the Greek god of pleasure was always looking over his shoulder... Read more at LAtimes.com