Thanks to Public Television, Gustavo Dudamel's debut as Music
Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on October 8th was made
available as a telecast, first broadcast on October 21st. I used the
VTR feature on my Comcast box to capture this broadcast for viewing at a
time when I could give it my full attention. Deutsche Grammophon has
captured the performance of Gustav Mahler's first symphony, the second
part of the concert, and released the recording through iTunes
under the title, "Mahler: Symphony No. 1 From the Inaugural Concert."
Presumably, an audio recording of the first portion of the concert, the
world premiere of "City Noir" by John Adams, will also be released in
the near future. A DVD of the entire performance will be released by
Deutsche Grammophon in November. Details of these and other
opportunities for virtual experiences of the concert may be found on the
Gustavo Dudamel Web site.
How
effective was the video capture as a virtual concert experience? As
can be imagined, some parts worked better than others. At the end of
the day, when Adams is at his full symphonic scale, recording does not
do him justice. Even the best audio recordings of his music fall short
of the full breadth of the physical experience; and the breadth of
"City Noir" is pretty full. Indeed, as a listener I felt some advantage
over all those recorded folks in Disney Hall for having heard "Slonimsky's Earbox"
last night, not only for the appreciation of the "live" experience in
Davies Symphony Hall but also for the opportunity to recognize a certain
cumulative approach that Adams takes to composition. There were many
occasions in the course of "City Noir" in which it felt as if Adams was
using "Slonimsky's Earbox" as a context against which he added a new
layer of solo work, realizing his "noir" effect through judicious use of
saxophone, trumpet, and plucked bass. (In comments before the
performance, Adams commented about using the Philharmonic as his
personal Ellington Band.) Still, there was far too much than could be
captured by even the best recording technology; and it seemed as if
there was also far too much for the video crew to follow during the
performance. Thus, while this part of the virtual experience certainly
provided a taste of Adams' most recent effort, I suspect I shall not be
able to appreciate it properly until I experience it physically in a
concert hall.
Surprisingly, however, the Mahler symphony was quite
another matter. The critical reaction in the press after opening night
was mixed. There was general agreement that Dudamel had found his own
way through Mahler's score but far less agreement over whether or not
this was a good thing. Personally, I was very positively impressed with
"Dudamel's way," which was very much a well-defined path from the
almost inaudible beginning to the blazing conclusion. Most important
was the way in which he took that process of disclosure, which I had discussed in a preview piece
last August in terms of the introduction to the first movement, and
made it work for almost the entirety of the first three movements of the
symphony. In other words each of these three movements became an
ongoing experience of increasing revelation. In the first two movements
the revelation culminated at the point of recapitulation, while in the
third movement it played out for the entire duration. In Dudamel's
logic all was preparation for the final movement, and I am willing to
grant him the proposition that this may have been Mahler's logic as
well. Needless to say, the path from beginning to end is not a direct
ascent. Each movement has its own major and minor climaxes; and, in
that spirit that I continue to admire in the conducting work of Pierre Boulez,
Dudamel knew exactly how to manage the entire network of these
climaxes. Furthermore, by conducting without the score, he was totally
connected to every member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic to guarantee
their responsiveness to his logic for managing that network. Finally,
perhaps because the video crew was in a better position to rehearse
against a recording of this symphony, the images were far more
informative in guiding the listener through the intricacies of structure
in this score. The DVD should prove an ideal resource for anyone
interested in getting a first taste of Mahler prior to experiencing his
music in a concert hall.
On the whole, then, the virtual
experience was highly satisfying, probably far more satisfying than I
anticipated. Meanwhile, San Francisco will have the opportunity to
experience this concert physically, since this is the program that
Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic will present when they come to
Davies Symphony Hall on May 10. This is a bit of a wait, but it should
be worth it. Besides, the delay will provide ample opportunity to
prepare through the DVD that will be released.
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