
CLICK ON PHOTO TO VIEW SLIDE SHOW
Review. The Orange County Register, Nov. 6, 2009.
Heretofore, Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new music director, has appeared with the orchestra for a week or two at a time. Thursday night marked the beginning of his most extended period with the group to date. He decided to open it with a real corker, a masterpiece of lyrical doom and gloom, pounding fear and hellfire known as Verdi’s Requiem. Expectations ran high in a sold-out Disney Hall.
The maestro, in white tie and tails, strode heroically onstage. He waited for complete silence and then began, the muted cellos playing so softly and distantly and intensely the listener leaned forward to hear, was instantly transported into another world until … a cell phone went off. It was a rock tune, strangely familiar yet what was it? I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. The rock tune went off again and one half expected Mr. Bean to stand up with a dumb grin on his face, fumbling in his coat pocket to turn the thing off.
Dudamel stopped the orchestra, the audience hissed, he waited for silence and then began again. OK, so it was only a concert after all. Thanks for the reminder, Mr. Bean.
Read the rest of this entry »