"He is a Mahlerian" – (Los Angeles Times)
Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic release Mahler Ninth on Deutsche Grammophon
Celebrating one of the most exciting musical partnerships of our time, Grammy®-winners Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic release their new recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 9 on Deutsche Grammophon.
In 2012, Gustavo Dudamel – the energetic, indefatigable, passionate "force of nature" who at age 31 has just been named Musical America's "Musician of the Year" for 2013 – undertook a complete cycle of Mahler symphonies with his two orchestras, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, performing all nine symphonies plus the fragmentary 10th in Los Angeles and Caracas over a period of only three weeks. It was an epic, ambitious project, with magnificent results – including the newest recording to be released by the LA Phil and Dudamel: Mahler's magisterial Ninth Symphony.
This is Dudamel's first recording on CD with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (previous releases have been in other formats) and it was recorded live at LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall during the 2012 Mahler project.
Dudamel and the LA Phil toured Europe with Mahler's Ninth in 2011, garnering widespread critical acclaim: the Guardian praised them for "a refinement and expressivity that touched the sublime". Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed called Dudamel's Mahler 9 "a powerful performance and the most audacious challenge yet for a fearless young conductor", and declared of the conductor: "He is a Mahlerian."
"I waited a long time to conduct this symphony", says Dudamel. "It embodies all the deep, personal dualities at the heart of Mahler's music: life and death, love and fear, hope and despair. It is a very special kind of music – breathtaking . . . perfect."
The Ninth Symphony was completed in 1909; Mahler died in May 1911, without ever hearing it performed.
Following a December 2012 US tour with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, and January 2013 engagements in Israel, Austria, and Germany, Dudamel returns to the LA Phil in February 2013 for performances that will include the world premiere of the staged production of The Gospel According to the Other Mary, a new work by John Adams that is a co-commission with London's Barbican Centre.
Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic tour in Europe starting in London on 14 March 2013, bringing to eager audiences what Classic FM called "one of the most tantalising orchestra-conductor relationships around".
