Gustavo Dudamel followed up his Simon Bolivar triumph of last November
with an impressive couple of weeks with the LA Philharmonic.  He is an
able, self-effacing violinist when playing chamber music and taps
inexhaustible energy stores when leading the orchestra.  He doesn't
conduct so much as play the orchestra and the musicians appear to enjoy
his Bugs Bunny approach to direction(*).  Their Symphonie Fantastique,
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, and Daphnis and Chloe took every
advantage of Disney Hall - filling it fully one moment and dropping to
complete silence the next.  The crowd went understandably nuts, especially
when he waded into the orchestra and brought selected soloists and
sections to their feet for curtain calls.  And on one evening, had the
entire ensemble turn around to acknowledge those of us clapping furiously
behind them.

I don't know what to make of the Prokofiev First Piano concerto.  Simon
Trpceski can handle its technical demands and the orchestra hangs on for
the ride.  I make even less of Bartok's Second Violin concerto.  Los
Angeles native Leila Josefowicz hid behind its technical whizbangery but
this, like her Knussen concerto of a couple years ago, left me wondering
why the fuss about her and the pieces.  Salonen's Insomnia could be
retitled Dunce Macabre.  It required more instruments than the Berlioz
with with it shared the program.  That's tough to do.

The nibs of Los Angeles are a creepy bunch but Borda, Broad, and The
Board got the Hall built, the endowment raised, and put Kid Dudamel on
contract.  There's a hint of Damnation of Faust in all of this where
Mephisto tells his minions that Faust has "signed of his own accord."
The minions of the underworld then dance and chant devilish hymns of
celebration.  The rest of us slobs can simply join them.  2009 can't
come fast enough.

(*) Baton Bunny: Bugs conducts von Suppe at The Hollywood Bowl
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3992151834765621215

Ravi Narasimhan

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