![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/dudamel.jpg?resize=200%2C305\")
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This is the review that did it for me – New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini fairly wetting himself<\/a> over the Philharmonic debut of conductor it-boy of this decade, Gustavo Dudamel.<\/p>\n Somehow, he withstood the pressure and delivered teeming, impassioned and supremely confident performances of works by Carlos Ch\u00c3\u00a1vez, Dvorak and Prokofiev. Clearly, the Philharmonic players were inspired by the boundless joy and intensity of his music-making.<\/p>\n That Mr. Dudamel charmed the Philharmonic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s archivist into lending him the Bernstein baton was also significant. Once this kinetic young conductor took the Philharmonic\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s podium, the comparisons with Bernstein were obvious.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I’m normally not at all a cynical person (ok, I’m a little bit cynical – sometimes), but I’m starting to get suspicious about the almost preternatural amount of hype that is surrounding the Venezuelan wunderkind Gustavo Dudamel. You can search via Google and prove me wrong if you wish, but I cannot recall a single even lukewarm review of a concert that he’s conducted since he catapulted into the international scene about a year or so ago. That’s strange. You can find plenty of fair, middling, or bad reviews of just about every “great” conductor since the time of Mahler – especially at the beginning of their careers – along with the occasional raves.<\/p>\n It may be that I’m a pretty avid devotee of the adage “if it sounds to good to be true…it is”, but the accolades heaped upon this 26 year old are almost approaching the realm of the implausible. Perhaps I’m haunted by my reading long ago of (I shudder to reference him, but…) Norman Lebrecht’s Who Killed Classical Music?<\/em>, and his expose of how the major artist managers essentially have a stranglehold over who appears where and gets what job in the classical music world. Perhaps it’s also related to reading<\/a> the blog On An Overgrown Path<\/a>, which raises good questions<\/a> about Venezuela’s El Sistema<\/a> and its possible uses as a propaganda tool by president Hugo Chavez, and about the mega arts management firm<\/a> who has been pulling strings for Dudamel these past few years (and who represents just about all of the A-list conductors currently in contention for all the major orchestral posts that are currently open).<\/p>\n It will be interesting to see where all of this goes. I am excited by the prospect of a major, new young talent that has already been described as “next Leonard Bernstein”, but I’m also skeptical that Dudamel will be the savior of classical music – which is how seems increasingly to be painted, and is not a mantle that he aspires to or deserves to be shouldered with. Clearly, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is hoping that he will be “the next big thing”, and he’s just the sort of talent that will play well in LA – and the musicians there seem enthusiastic about his appointment as well. I was talking with a person in the industry the other day, and they pointed out that Dudamel has a very small repertoire at present (maybe a dozen pieces repeated as he makes his debut rounds) and that’s a long way from what you need to lead a major, world-class orchestra. He also has energy and enthusiasm in spades, but how will he deal with the rigors of fund-raising, schmoozing with patrons, and a veteran orchestra with its own set of agendas and the union system of checks to the power and influence of the music director – only time will tell.<\/p>\n For now, I’ll read the glowing reviews and hope for the best – and be thankful that there are at least some stories about classical music which sweep the world media that actually contain good<\/em> news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the review that did it for me – New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini fairly wetting himself over the Philharmonic debut of conductor it-boy of this decade, Gustavo Dudamel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[115,2],"tags":[67,120,86,117,112,55,160,3660],"class_list":["post-557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-classical","tag-classical-music","tag-conductor","tag-critic","tag-management","tag-orchestra","tag-review","tag-viola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-8Z","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":275,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/13\/la-phildudamel-round-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":557,"position":0},"title":"LA Phil\/Dudamel Round-up","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00c2\u00a9 Dan Porges In case you've been in a remote cave system somewhere, by now you've heard about the astonishing and exciting (both due to the apparent \"rightness\" of this bold decision by the LAPhil management) hire of meteoric Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel as the next music director of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"dudamel.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/dudamel.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":789,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/19\/dudamel-on-60-minutes\/","url_meta":{"origin":557,"position":1},"title":"dudamel on 60 minutes","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"For those of you who missed it, Gustavo Dudamel (music director-designate of the LA Philharmonic) was featured on 60 Minutes on Sunday evening.\u00c2\u00a0 You can go here to see the video of the segment.","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":287,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/04\/25\/ny-phil-makes-changes-at-the-top-of-its-roster\/","url_meta":{"origin":557,"position":2},"title":"ny phil makes changes at the top of its roster","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The New York Times reports that the New York Philharmonic has decided to add the position of Principal Conductor to its roster. Most likely this is an attempt to get a place-holder figure on the podium on a regular basis while they continue their search for a successor to music\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"nyphillogo.gif","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/04\/nyphillogo.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13550,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/02\/haydn-go-seek\/","url_meta":{"origin":557,"position":3},"title":"haydn go seek?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, that's what the great Leonard 'Lenny' Bernstein is doing here with the Vienna Philharmonic. He's employing a minimalist method of conducting - but he still\u00a0is conducting. He's using his most important conductorial attributes: his eyes and face. All the great ones do - and it's what makes for almost\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/oU0Ubs2KYUI\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2102,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/09\/dudamel-in-berlin\/","url_meta":{"origin":557,"position":4},"title":"dudamel in berlin","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 9, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Berlin Philharmonic offers a free video trailer of Dudamel's concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic.\u00c2\u00a0 The video clip features a rehearsal segment from near the end of Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony.\u00c2\u00a0 Worth watching - requires a broadband connection.\u00c2\u00a0 The entire concert will be available to stream (for a fee) in a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"dudamel.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/dudamel.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":897,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/31\/slatkin-and-dudamel-start-to-make-marks\/","url_meta":{"origin":557,"position":5},"title":"slatkin and dudamel start to make marks","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Some random orchestrally-themed news that I recommend to you: First, the Detroit Free Press published a wonderfully comprehensive article on the activities of Leonard Slatkin as he prepares to officially take the reins of the Detroit Symphony this Fall. Next, the Orange County Register reports on the first appearance in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "conducting"","block_context":{"text":"conducting","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/conducting\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}