Young Blood

Peter Burwasser on Classical

by Peter Burwasser

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Published: Nov 11, 2008

The LA Philharmonic stunned the classical music world last year when it named then 26-year-old Gustavo Dudamel as its new music director. As things are shaping up, this may not have been that bold a move after all.

I had seen him conduct a few weeks before that announcement, in Chicago, and my comment before the concert was fairly common: Gustavo who? When the lanky, impossibly youthful Venezuelan with the mop of wavy hair bounced out onto the stage of Symphony Hall, the next question was, could this kid manage this famous ensemble of seasoned pros, many old enough to be his grandparents?

Apparently, resistance to this force of nature is futile. With his toes at the edge of the podium, baton high in the air and at the very tops of his fingers, he dared the musicians to join him in his joyous exploration of Mahler. He conducts with his whole body, from his glowing eyes, through his gyrating hips, to his dancing feet. If this style sounds familiar, you probably have had the experience of seeing the late Leonard Bernstein conduct, to whom Dudamel has been widely compared. Of course, Bernstein was also ridiculed for what many considered to be an overly theatrical podium presence, but the proof comes when you close your eyes. In the case of both Bernstein and Dudamel, the excitement is still there in the dark.

Dudamel's spectacular career is already being hyped as "the future of classical music." That is a lot to lay on the kid's shoulders, but there is an important piece of his story that does offer a powerful model for improving the health of an ailing art form. Dudamel is the poster child for El Sistema, a musical training program founded in 1975 by a Venezuelan economist as a way to rescue children from poverty and despair. El Sistema takes guns and drugs out of the hands of children and replaces them with violins and trumpets. The results have been astonishing, and products of the program now sit in major orchestras around the world. Dudamel himself is from a middle-class family, but 90 percent of the participants in El Sistema live below the poverty line.

Dudamel mania comes to Philly this week, with the music dude guest conducting the Israel Philharmonic. The glorious Brahms Fourth is on tap, as well as two works by that Bernstein guy.

(p_burwasser@citypaper.net)

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Wed., Nov. 19, 8 p.m., Kimmel Center, Verizon Hall, 300 S. Broad St., 215-893-1999, kimmelcenter.org.

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