Last Thursday, October 8, 2009, the L.A. Philharmonic welcomed its new conductor: the young 28-year-old prodigy Gustavo Dudamel from Venezuela. He is the eleventh man to helm the orchestra in its 90-year history. He took over from Esa-Pekka Salonen from Finland, who was chief conductor of the L.A. Phil for the last seventeen years. This was a historic occasion, not only because Salonen had been such a fixture for such a long time, but because this was only the second time in the orchestra’s history that they have had a non-Western maestro (the other was Zubin Mehta from India from 1962-78).
However, probably the most notable feature was the fanfare. Never before has a conductor been received with such enthusiasm. The advertising leading up to this concert series took advantage of his Latin American flair, with slogans such as “Pasión Gustavo” and “Electrico Gustavo.” Dudamel arrived to the crush of media, the camera flashes of paparazzi, the red carpet, and a hype that has hardly been seen before in classical music (the closest thing I can think of is The Three Tenors, which remains the best-selling classical music album of all time). With singers, I can understand the attention and fandom — but a conductor?
I’m a violinist and I grew up playing in orchestras, from junior high school all the way through my doctoral studies. Based on that experience, you may think it strange for me to ask, “How important is a conductor, anyway?” However, one cardinal rule that has always been instilled into me (by all my various conductors, no less) is this: The conductor is not the most important piece of the orchestra. To the average orchestra concertgoer, they can be forgiven for thinking that he is. After all, the conductor stands in the center, is the most visible, and provides the most movement. However, if people come to see the conductor, they are focusing on the wrong thing. It is the orchestra who are the performers. The orchestra is the centerpiece, and only the uneducated focus on the conductor. (The same goes for clapping between movements in a symphony or concerto — the people “in the know” know to save their applause until the end, only the plebeians clap in between movements!)
Now that being said, clearly the conductor is important to some extent. The conductor provides the interpretation of the music: volume, tempo, and mood. Yet, I bet that even if I stood up and tried to conduct the L.A. Philharmonic (heaven forbid!), it still would sound pretty darn good just because the L.A. Phil is the L.A. Phil. I wonder if people who are given a “blind” listen of the L.A. Phil vs. the Chicago Symphony vs. the London Phil would really be able to tell the difference between them, despite them all having different conductors. I think, to some extent, praising a conductor for being better or different than others is a case of the Emperor’s New Clothes. And I am often the first to cry, “The emperor is naked!”
As such, I was a bit skeptical of the hype surrounding Gustavo Dudamel (who is affectionately nicknamed “The Dude,” one of the best monikers ever — it reminds me of The Big Lebowski, where “The Dude abides”). Still, curiosity got the better of me; I had to see for myself what he was all about.
So I went to Dudamel’s inaugural concert — sort of. It was impossible to get tickets for inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and only the incredibly rich could get in (I think I saw Tom Hanks in the audience, for example). For us common groundlings, they offered free tickets to sit outdoors in the Music Center Plaza (right outside the Disney Hall) or to have dinner next to the concert venue, in both cases watching the performance via live simulcast. Good enough for me. I took a date, had a nice dinner, watched the simulcast (amid the hype of the crowd gathered there), and I came away convinced. Gustavo is, indeed, electrico.
First of all, he has big hair. That shaggy mane is necessary for any conductor to “shake it.” I love watching John Williams every year at the Hollywood Bowl, but unfortunately the man is bald and not very expressive, and it is more his music than his conducting that draws me. But on a more serious note, Gustavo was dynamic. He punctuated every accent with vehemence. He soothed every graceful passage with sweet caresses. He seemed to breathe the music, as if it were a part of him. He “conducted” himself (no pun intended) with the poise of a man with several decades of experience under his belt, but with the youthful energy befitting his actual age. He was, in short, the best of both worlds. And no wonder — he conducts European music with a Latin soul.
And finally and most impressively, he didn’t use a podium. Yep, that’s right, no sheet music — the man memorized the whole program. That’s a feat in and of itself, but it’s even more spectacular when you consider that the piece he chose was Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, aka “The Titan.” There is a reason that that symphony has received that epithet, and that is because it is HUGE. In order to perform it, you must double the size of your typical orchestra to 100 musicians (they had six double basses alone, I counted), and it originally was five movements instead of the typical four for a symphony. Mahler stands on the border between the Romantic and Modern eras, between Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, and he meshes the two styles into one of the grandest symphonies ever composed. And “The Dude” conducted the piece like he wrote it. Pretty ambitious for a first go-round, but he was more than up to the task.
At the end of the concert, Dudamel was interviewed. He spoke in his accented English with a big smile, and it was evident that his personality is as exciting as his conducting. I only wish he spoke more, but he seemed effusive without being arrogant, engaging without being cloying. The kind of guy who channels the audience”s acclaim into pasión and an unforgettable performance.
If I had to make a pop culture reference, the difference between Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel feels somewhat like the transition of James Bond from Pierce Brosnan to Daniel Craig. The old was smooth, stylish, and impeccably groomed. The new is dynamic, rugged, and very, very exciting (though also very shaggy, unlike Craig).
Today (in fact, right now as I post this blog) is the final concert of the inaugural four-concert series conducted by Dudamel. This marks the beginning of a new era. It is wonderful, especially in this economy of downturn and this culture of Kim Kardashian, to have so much hype about a classical music conductor. Perhaps it is a good sign of things to come. I encourage you, when the ticket prices have somewhat subsided, to grab a ticket and watch Dudamel in action. For once, I think I can say that you should go to a concert to see the conductor! And he’s just signed a five-year contract (with a definite possibility of extension) with the L.A. Phil so it’s likely we’ll be seeing much of him for years to come. Viva Gustavo!
