Concert Review: Joy Without (too much) Pain

Gustavo Dudamel takes on Beethoven's Ninth.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Photo by Matthew Imaging
© 2018 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Like a famous conductor on tour across America, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in d minor is a victim of its own success. The four movement symphony was the first in its genre to add human voices in the form of four soloists and a choir to an already expanded symphony orchestra. For better or worse, the main theme of its finale is culturally ubiquitous, a necessity for any orchestra or choral society. As a result, bad performances of the Ninth are legion: enthusiastic readings that do little to enhance the work’s musical worth.

Concert Review: Dancing on the Red Carpet

The Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra opens Carnegie Hall's 2016 season.by Paul J. Pelkonen

Gustavo Dudamel leads the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela
at Carnegie Hall. Photo by Chris Lee © 2016 Carnegie Hall.

The conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela create a sensation no matter where and when they play. This year, Mr. Dudamel and his musicians were Carnegie Hall's choice to open the 2016-17 season. On Thursday night, conductor and orchestra chose two 20th century orchestral works and a globe-trotting selection of five dances from five very different composers.

Concert Review: The Crimes of a Century

The Los Angeles Philharmonic returns to Lincoln Center.
by Paul J. Pelkonen

Speaks with his hands: Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel.
Photo by Luis Cobelo © 2014 Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music Group.

The return of conductor Gustavo Dudamel to New York is always a momentous occasion. Sunday's concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall featured two heavy-weight symphonies that stand one century apart: the Symphony No. 1 of New York composer John Corigliano and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5., a perennial audience favorite. Outside, a small group of protestors congregated to remind concert-goers of the dangerous conditions in Mr. Dudamel's native Venezuela.

Inside, the conductor and his orchestra had other concerns.