AROUND TOWN/MUSIC: Dudamel returns

By Robert D. Thomas
Music Critic
Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune/Whittier Daily News
This article was first published today in the above papers.

Dudamelmania, Chapter 3, rolls into Southern California this week as Gustavo Dudamel leads four concert programs with two different ensembles over the next fortnight. Judging by the booming ticket sales, the hoopla that has surrounded the 27-year-old Venezuelan conductor since he was chosen as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's music director-designate last year shows no sign of abating.

Moreover, the concerts will give us another chance to learn more about Dudamel's musicality and conducting style as he leads a mixture of repertoire touchstones and rarities. These programs are a far cry from the ultra-flashy ones he trotted out with his Simón Bolivár Youth Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela a year ago at Disney Hall, but that's all to the good since Dudamel assumes the L.A. Phil leadership role in just 10 months.

In today's concert at the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa's Orange County Performing Arts Center, which has been sold out for weeks, Dudamel will lead the Israel Philharmonic in Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 (Italian) and Brahms Symphony No. 4.

Tomorrow night, Dudamel and the Israelis journey up I-5 to Walt Disney Concert Hall for the final stop on their eight-concert, 13-day United States tour celebrating the orchestra's 60th anniversary and the 90th birthday of the IPO's Laureate Conductor, Leonard Bernstein.

The program, which they have played in four different concerts already, will include Bernstein's Halil, a nocturne for flute and orchestra, with the IPO flutist Eyal Ein-Habar as soloist; Jubilee Games, Bernstein's final major orchestral work, which was composed for the IPO's 50th anniversary; and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4.

The Israelis fly home but Dudamel remains in Los Angeles for two weeks of subscription concerts (and, presumably, a Pink's hot dog - or three - the La Brea hot dog emporium reportedly being one of his favorite hangouts).

Friday and Saturday nights at 8 and next Sunday afternoon at 2 in Disney Hall, Dudamel will conduct a piece by one of the favorite composers of the man Dudamel will succeed at the LAPO helm, Esa-Pekka Salonen: Gyorgy Ligeti's Atmopheres. The Dudamel-Salonen tie continues as soprano Christine Brewer, Salonen's Isolde in The Tristan Project, will be the soloist in Richard Strauss' achingly beautiful Four Last Songs. After intermission comes Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 Pastoral.

Then on Dec. 4-7, Dudamel opens with Gyorgy Kurtäg's 1994 composition Stele; continues with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, K. 488, with Rudolf Buchbinder as soloist; and concludes with Richard Strauss' sprawling tone poem An Alpine Symphony, a work that, when Zubin Mehta conducted it with the Philharmonic in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion decades ago, Music Critic Martin Bernheimer was moved to write: "This was magnificent playing of awful music." Actually, it isn't awful; it's a highly picturesque, albeit over-inflated, composition of Strauss' vision of a day in the Alps.

If you hope to hear any of these L.A. Phil concerts, management suggests you check directly with the box office (323/850-2000). The last time Dudamel conducted the Philharmonic, tickets for the second week were a little bit more available, but everything is extremely tight as this column is written (a week before you read it). Be persistent; he's definitely worth the effort and won't be back until next season.
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• Read a sampling of reviews from the East Coast portion of the Israel Philharmonic tour HERE
• Read Tim Mangan's interview with Dudamel from his Orange County Register Blog HERE.
• View YouTube clips of Dudamel conducting HERE
• Read Reed Johnson's profile of Dudamel in today's Los Angeles Times HERE
• Read Roxana Popescu's profile in the San Diego Union-Tribune HERE _____________

(c) Copyright 2008, Robert D. Thomas. All rights reserved. Portions may be quoted with attribution.