One may need to hear Uri Caine first to recognize how Jewish this symphony is. It's marvelous how this is pushed a little bit, that is being pulled against it timing... And then, at 5'23'', all the small nets are torn apart with one grand shift. The real trauermarsch starts at 7'46'', when nothing is left and nothing–despite all the attempts–can be built.
Dudamel is very soft and flexible in this recording. Listen to the wheel at 1'09'' and again at 3'01'', how it starts turning. Fresh, subtle account, and very sad. The sorrow of the last minute is unbearable.
Composer: Gustav Mahler Work: Symphony No 5, I. Trauermarsch Recording: Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, Gustavo Dudamel
It's love that smells of oil. Cold, abruptive, steel love, pervert but still love. Fractions are combined with fractions, there's no rush, very spatial feeling comes from the music.
This is a composition for Los Angeles and about Los Angeles. I can hardly find something better to listen to during my first day in L.A. Through the windows of rented Ford Edge, the city looks distant, inert. I need to come back.
Composer: John Adams Work: City Noir, II. The Song Is For You Recording: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel
Bartók, that's not just sturdy peasant rhythms and folk songs. The first movement of his concerto for orchestra is a wonderful, complex, and mysterious erection. Here you can wander from room to room and they're all different. You don't want to go but you're dragged into the journey anyway. Here: too much sunshine. Here: too many recollections. More, more, keep going!
Dudamel accents the melancholy and irreversibility (but how ferocious he is later in the third movement!). LAP is on the hunt for beauty. Its rich sound is fetching and abstract at once. At the end of the movement, you should have tears in your eyes.
Composer: Béla Bartók Work: Concerto for Orchestra, I. Introduction: Allegro non troppo Recording: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel
