classical music:

	Mahler: Symphony No. 5 Mahler, Gustavo Dudamel, ... Deutsche Grammophon, 2007 average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

With its energetic outbursts, expressive cantilenas and constant changes of mood, Mahler's Symphony no. 5 is the ideal repertoire for showcasing the forces of the SBYOV and its conductor. Dudamel and the orchestra caused a sensation on their 2006 tour of Italy when Abbado, who was announced to conduct the symphony, handed the baton over to Dudamel at the last minute. Even in Abbado's home country, Gustavo and his orchestra pulled off a Mahler 5 that brought the euphoric audience to their feet. "Critics have called the Venezuelan phenomenon Gustavo Dudamel one of the most talented young conductors in the world - and they are absolutely right." -The New Yorker

Dudamel was recently named Esa-Pekka Salonen's successor as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Music Director beginning in the 2009-2010 season.

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A Most Worthy Calling Card!

The miracle/mystery of the gift of great conducting is something audiences for ages have pondered. Given the schooling, the influence in early life of some great mentors, the opportunities or good fortunes that open to certain young conductors - given these and other factors, why is it that only a few conductors are great? And while no one purports to have the answer, the chief factor seems to be the innate musicality of the gifted ones. Gustavo Dudamel has the gift, the insight into the minds of composers, the ability to step onto a podium with assured preparedness, the means of communicating his thoughts and concepts to his orchestra, and the resulting stimulation of his audiences to become wholly involved with the music of the moment.

While most every classical music devotee probably has multiple fine recordings of Gustav Mahler's challenging and exquisitely passionate Fifth Symphony, few of those polished recordings played by the big orchestras of the world and recorded in acoustically mellow halls/studios can excite the ear and heart the way that this recording by Dudamel and his Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela can. The approach is straight forward, as though Dudamel conversed directly with Mahler, the insights are gleaming (inner lines have rarely been so clear, portions of the orchestration which has been muddy under the baton of others finds clarity and passion combined, etc), and the symphony makes complete sense as a whole rather than as a series of individual movements. High words of praise? Yes, but for this listener, having just witnessed Dudamel and his orchestra visiting in the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, there have been few equals in the interpretation and playing of this mammoth score. The first desk players are superb (the solo French Horn in the third movement is near perfect) and the commitment of the orchestra to their maestro is evident and unflagging throughout the long symphony.

Dudamel and Mahler - prepare for an impressive association. Fortune has smiled on the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Dudamel approaches his role of Music Director in 2009. The hall, his musicality, and the emotional impact of Gustavo Dudamel with the Los Angeles Philharmonic bode well for the music world. This fine recording with his own orchestra of gifted young people is a stunning calling card! Grady Harp, November 07

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A Mahler Fifth rich with the thrill of discovery

I was amazed some years back to hear a youth orhestra play the enormously challenging Mahler Fifth with virtuosic skill and freshness -- that CD featured the Junge Deutsche Philharmoniker under Rudolf Barshai (a budget release on Brilliant). Here we go a second time, and the results are even more extraordinary, for who could live farther from Vienna than children of Caracas, Venezuela? Yet these teenagers play with the thrill of discovery, and their magnetic prodigy of a conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, finds scintillating ways to illuminate this great work.

I don't know how any listener could fail to sit up and take notice -- it's a shame when originality isn't acknowledged and celebrated. The execution of the orchestra is terrific (just listen to the blazing first horn), and I imagine seeing them on stage would bring tears. To think that Mahler's genius could ignite passion in such an unlikely setting. Venezuela has promoted classical music as a national treasure, putting the public schools of the U.S. to shame. The Simon Bolivar orchestra is the cream of a very substantial crop of youth orchestras across the country. In addition, any cavil aobut the sonics here is misplaced -- this CD sounds exemplary.

Ultimately, however, judgment rests on the interpretation, and Dudamel fully justifies his recent appointment as the successor to Salonen with the Los Angeles Phil. On the whole Dudamel's interprettion is mroe delicate than any other I've heard, and the music blooms under his care. This is serious, deeply felt music-making. No wonder world-class orchestras are clamoring for Dudamel. Here his tempos are faster than usual at times, but that's a trivial criterion -- what counts is his expressive flexibility, his imaginative phrasing, his way with nuance and power combined. There's not a trace of bombast or rhetoric. Indeed, he eclipses Bernstein's extroverted mastery with its exact opposite.

I couldn't get on the bandwagon for Dudamel's debut CD of the Beethoven Fifth and Seventh, but this new release has converted me. We are witnessing a great maestro in his first, exciting phase.

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You MUST get this!

I saw this guy on 60 minutes and WOW! He is so wonderful. He can really make someone fall in love with classical music. I love his passion for music. Its nice to see a fresh young face on a conductor! I would LOVE to see him live! Not sure that would happen at this time, but boy I would sure try hard if he ever came to Chicago!


Impossible but true!

One looks to Horenstein and Bernstein for Mahler. I could not believe the absolute intuitive rightness of Dudamel's way with Mahler's 5th. The tricky variations--in every dimension--that characterize Mahler's wordless discourses on fragmented, fraught modernity are always, in this performance, aspects of the work as an integrated whole. The Bolivar youth orchestra was, for me, absolutely and amazingly up to the job, though as a non-musician I may well have failed to notice infelicities that a musician's ear would pick up. In any case, I find this an uncannily good performance, and have recommended it to those of my friends who still sit and listen to music. The recording is very good.

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as far as melodrama goes

I find Dudamel's musical direction so melodramatic that it's toxic, but for those who love a lot of drama in their music, he's pretty good. Creative use of white tones... Unexpected in a work like this. Decent sense of rythm and continuity, decent sense of contrast. He lays it on really thick, and I am knocking a star off for that.


reviews: page 1, 2



Tracks
trauermarsch. In Gemessenem Schritt. Streng. Wie Ein Kondukt | Sturmisch Bewegt. Mit Grosster Vehemenz | Scherzo. Kraftig, Nicht Zu Schnell | Adagietto. Sehr Langsam | Rondo-Finale. Allegro - Allegro Giocoso. Frisch

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