Gustavo Dudamel and the LSO, a more French than German love story | Culture

Virtuosity and versatility are two qualities that are usually associated with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). The British team, which was born in 1904 as a consequence of a labor rebellion against Henry Wood and its Queen’s Hall orchestra, soon consolidated its personality, capable of satisfying the musical tastes of very famous and very different directors. Until Richard Strauss himself directed this orchestra in 1922 and recorded his symphonic poem for Columbia Don Juan and the waltzes of his opera THE CABALLERO DE LA ROSA. And, in 1923, Serguéi Kusevitski directed one of the first interpretations of the famous Orchestration of Maurice Ravel of Pictures of an exhibitionby Modest Musorgski. That is why the natural connection that the LSO has found in its first meeting with Gustavo Dudamel in four actions distributed between Madrid and Barcelona, ​​which culminated last Monday, May 12 in the National Auditorium with an extraordinary concert that put the final touch to the Ibermusic cycles.

The sensational program of the Venezuelan star of the podium aspired to exhibit virtuosity and versatility of the LSO by confronting German and French musical modernism after gala humiliation in the Franco-Prussian war. Four compositions of distinguishing distinguished distinguishing and Ravel, written between 1888 and 1910, who opposed the German ideal of a music that explores the emotional and psychological against the French, which contemplates it as a source of pleasure and beauty. The balance opted on the French side, especially in the first part. The symphonic poem Don Juanof Strauss, started overwhelmingly with those impetuous florites that represent the protagonist’s youth impulse. However, the rest of the work, based on the version of Nikolaus Lenau, lacked the depth that we heard in its aforementioned recording of 1922, despite its technical limitations. Of course, the British orchestra shone both together and at the individual level, with exquisite alone of the violinist Benjamin Gilmore in the first love adventure and the oboist Juliana Koch in the second, although he doubt it did not know how to reflect the disappointment of the protagonist that will lead him to be killed in the end.

Ravel’s change was surprising. And, at the beginning of the song cycle Shéhérazadethe LSO exhibited a much more transparent sound, which Dudamel enriched up raising the textures of the fantasy world that surrounds the soloist in the extensive first song entitled Asia. The Soprano Letona Marina Rebeka was a luxury as a soloist, with a caudalous, homogeneous and flexible voice, although her French articulation was not very clear. The delighted flute He had exquisite alone from Gareth Davies and ended with The indifferentwhich masterfully evoked the ambiguity between desire and indifference. But the best of the night came after the break with an exceptional interpretation of the Spanish rapsodiafrom Ravel. Dudamel sharpened each dynamic and each texture of the score, but without neglecting the nightlife of the beginning or the rhythms of Malaga and Havanera of the following two movements. His vision of the work underlines the modernity of Ravel’s writing above his usual exoticism. And converts the festive final movement into a perfect synthesis of sensuality and vitality.

But the concert ended with the opera suite THE CABALLERO DE LA ROSAof Strauss, attributed to the Artur Rodziński orchestra director. An orchestral selection that, although it does not respect the order of opera events, effectively paraphrases its musical achievements. The LSO again admitted ideally to the most phlegmatic and sweaty sound of the German composer and Dudamel shone here more clairvoyant than in Don Juan. However, he was missing hondura to dive in the complexity of the seemingly subtle and affordable language of this score. We verified it in the initial prelude, which sounded more intense than voluptuous. The presentation of the rose was very beautiful and the contrast of the intrigues, successful; But the beautiful and anachronistic waltz of the Rudo Barón Ochs did not finish rising, despite the exquisite camer inflections and their rustic aftertaste. The third climate of the last act also did not find his emotional temperature, although he doubted class details like the exquisite delay added in the plan immediately for its final part. However, the final waltz celebrating the defeat of Ochs was propelled well and unleashed a sound ovation. Dudamel exhibited in the final applause the ideal tune he has with the musicians of the LSO, although for now his love story is more French than German.