The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

New York surrenders to Gustavo Dudamel in his first concert as music director of the Philharmonic

2023-05-20T03:48:13.605Z

Highlights: Gustavo Dudamel conducts Mahler's Ninth Symphony in the first concert since he was appointed head of the orchestra. The Venezuelan maestro will not join until 2026, and tonight's was not at all his debut in New York. The Ninth is his last complete symphony, one of the last three great works he composed and the Adagio, a farewell to the world. This Friday is the first of a batch of three throughout the weekend, with identical program, for which all tickets were sold weeks ago.


The Venezuelan maestro conducts Mahler's Ninth Symphony, which held the same position a century ago, in the first concert since he was appointed head of the orchestra


Gustavo Dudamel conducts the New York Philharmonic in March 2022.Chris Lee

Gustavo Dudamel has inaugurated this Friday his relationship with the New York Philharmonic, in the first concert he conducts since his appointment as musical and artistic director of the orchestra was announced, in February. Although the Venezuelan musician will not join until 2026, and tonight's was not at all his debut in New York, the aperitif has given a good example of what awaits the musicians and the public in that future stage: an absolute communion.

With a moving Gustav Mahler Ninth Symphony, Dudamel drew a standing ovation of more than four minutes, but also some tears in his intimate interpretation of the last movement, the moving Adagio. So special was the version of the Philharmonic that when the last note sounded, the stalls were completely silent while Dudamel, in a recollection of seconds that seemed to last an eternity, metabolized the emotion that gives off that musical and vital testament of the Viennese musician. The Ninth is his last complete symphony, one of the last three great works he composed and the Adagio, a farewell to the world.

The choice of the piece for its official presentation in New York was not free either: Gustav Mahler was also musical director of the orchestra, already in broken health, between 1909 and 1911. As Dudamel himself recalled in February in his official presentation as head of the Philharmonic, conducting an orchestra led by composers such as Mahler, Toscanini or Bernstein, among many others, is a dream come true; "To be in such an emblematic place with such an impressive past."

This Friday is the first of a batch of three throughout the weekend, with identical program, for which all tickets were sold weeks ago. The expectation was maximum, as the ovation that dismissed the orchestra and conductor, although the Ninth is not an easy piece. Neither the Ninth nor any other, as Mahler himself warned: "A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything." At the moment when the Adagio of the Novena fades into the deepest silence, also in the stillness of Dudamel, it seems to contain even more than that.

The Venezuelan director, who often jokes about the fact that he is no longer a young promise – he is 42 years old – showed a surprising maturity before Mahler's composition, with a demanding first movement, the tremendous sound challenge of the third and that adagio – overshadowed in fame by the adaggieto of the Fifth Symphony thanks to the film Death in Venice , but much deeper- that left Dudamel transfixed and the audience, in silence and without the threat of starting to applaud (a very surprising gesture given the expressiveness of the New York public, which in operas applauds each aria). The Ninth Symphony showed a mature Dudamel, energetic and elegant, delicate, no longer as exuberant as before, as if Mahler's Central European depth, and his remote legacy at the head of the Philharmonic, had rested on his shoulders, anointing him with the halo of genius. Then, when greeting, the expansive and Caribbean Dudamel reappeared, with the same smile of the boy from Barquisimeto who dreamed of one day conducting an orchestra.

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2023-05-20

You may like

Life/Entertain 2024-02-09T12:43:15.728Z
News/Politics 2024-02-09T14:23:41.273Z

Trends 24h

Life/Entertain 2024-03-28T17:17:20.523Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.