Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic at Davies Hall in San Francisco: Adams, Chapela, and Prokofiev…Dudamania lives!, by Steven Kruger


Dudamel-front-on
Gustavo Dudamel. Photo Chris Lee.

Davies Hall, San Francisco
Saturday, October 23, 2011

The Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
Thomas Moser, electric cello

Adams—--Short Ride in a Fast Machine
Chapela—MAGNETAR

Prokofiev--Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, Opus 100

Once upon a time, not too long ago, listeners might have resisted accepting on credit the notion of a conductor performing new music charismatically. For many decades, full-house audiences (at those moments desperately wishing themselves sparse) tended to squirm patiently through modern works, waiting for ever more elusive harmony or so much as a symphonic phrase, the experience more to be withstood than understood. Dodecaphonic compositions, in particular, constituted toll-booths on the musical freeway: to be bought off as taxation, passed-through and, if lucky, forgotten. Certainly not to be loved.

Read the full review
 on the Berkshire Review, an International Journal for the Arts!