Saturday, December 19, 2015

October 23, 2009: Dudamel's inaugural concert in Los Angeles: the virtual experience

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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