Hype and Circumstance

Sometimes the hype gets it right. Went to a great concert last night, the last night of Gustavo Dudamel's debut with the New York Philharmonic. He's a very young conductor (26) from Venezuela who learned music through a remarkable public education program known as El Sistema, that has taught more than 270,000 poor kids from tough barrios. Dudamel conducts the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra (with whom he made an apparently triumphant Carnegie Hall debut earlier this year). In 2009, Dudamel's going to become conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.



The concert began with a charming 13-minute curtain raiser by a Mexican composer named Carlos Chávez. Lots of percussion and energy, which suits Dudamel's dramatic style. But it was a mere trifle compared to the tremendous version of Dvorak's Violin Concerto with violinist Gil Shaham. OK, lots of the credit goes to Shaham, who is simply terrific. He has a relaxed virtuosity that allows you to relax and enjoy his glorious sound and skittering technique. But he also has an extremely generous nature and was clearly enjoying working with Dudamel. Whenever he wasn't playing, he stood back a step and gave an I-have-the-best-seat- in-the-house smile while watching Dudamel's bouncing flourishes and pounces. The two of them together really did make a joyful noise. (OK, Dvorak helped. He's my pet composer and almost never disappoints. But his great pieces, and this is one, are melodically stirring and soulful in a way that confirms and heightens the power of folk music.)

I hadn't heard Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony before. It definitely fits the "fifth is a winner" pattern established by so many composers (Beethoven, Tchaikovsky,Shostakovitch). Great, pounding floods of music, again, well-suited to Dudamel's energetic passion. The first act ends with a section that is rock-music loud and so cathartic that you could feel the whole audience sitting on their hands to keep from giving the ovation it deserved (sometimes the rules of classical music are too restrictive. Honestly, it would have felt good to clap there, even though it would have broken the unity of the piece.) The orchestra gets a work out as it swerves from rapid, jittery passages intoelegiac lines (it was written near the end of World War II) and then into an elated, skipping finale. It was a great piece, and Dudamel clearly carried the orchestra with him.

It'll be very interesting to see where he goes from here.