Dudamel Conducts Schubert and Berio

Two Unfinished Symphonies and Folk Songs Given Exemplary Readings

Nov 15, 2009

Gustavo Dudamel has programmed an ambitious season that includes works from the Classical, Romantic, Post-Romantic, Modern and Contemporary periods to name a few.

In his second month as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel has enthralled audiences with his interpretations of Ludwig van Beethoven, John Adams, Gustav Mahler, Unsuk Chin, Giuseppe Verdi, Luciano Berio, and Franz Schubert.

A recent performance at Walt Disney Concert Hall continued to fascinate new and sustaining patrons of the young maestro who came to see him lead the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a program of Franz Schubert and Luciano Berio.

Had Franz Schubert lived to complete his Tenth Symphony, in D major it might have been decidedly different than the version offered by Luciano Berio. Renderings, which utilizes the fragmentary posthumous sketches of Schubert's Tenth Symphony, in D major, is not a completion or reconstruction of the Schubert. According to Herbert Glass in an article written for the November 2009 issue of Performances Magazine, Berio wrote in the forward to his score that Renderings "is intended as a restoration of those sketches. This restoration is made along the lines of the modern restoration of frescoes that aims at reviving the old colors without, however, trying to disguise the damage that time has caused."

Berio orchestrates Schubert's piano sketches for the Tenth using the same orchestra that Schubert used for his "Unfinished" Symphony, but adds a celesta, (a struck idiophone operated by a keyboard that resembles an upright piano) and his 20th century dissonance and rhythmic complexity. Berio’s connective tissue fills in Schubert’s unfinished sections with soft, dreamy, elements, atonal but exquisite…as if viewing from a distance.

The second movement incorporated three simple sketches which are played on the celesta. Schubert had begun to study counterpoint and indicated in his score which Berio includes as an isolated otherworldly passage.

The third movement is a great example of counterpoint and is probably the most complicated of Schubert’s works. It has a graceful, elegant, dance-like quality similar to the Tarantella, but a bit heavier.

Maestro Dudamel led an impeccably poised, even, and beautiful reading of the entire symphony. Schubert scholars in the audience may have noticed where the Schubert ended and the Berio music sections began, however the majority of audience members enjoyed three seamless movements interpreted beautifully by Dudamel.

Folk Songs is a song cycle written by Luciano Berio in 1964. It consists of arrangements of folk music from various countries created specifically for Berio’s then wife, mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian. Dawn Upshaw sang the 11 songs in several different languages including English, Armenian, French, and Italian.

Her impeccable soprano voice was clear, bright and expressive with the vibrato carefully offered. Dudamel’s conducting was serene and beautifully supportive and the first half ended with a standing ovation for Dudamel, Upshaw and the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra.

After intermission, Gustavo Dudamel presented a different side of his conducting persona. Here, his warm, serene conducting was interspersed with the electrifying energetic bravura that has captivated audiences around the globe. The maestro conducted the transitions in this piece with flawless acumen taking you from one point to the next with precision and grace. This piece was splendid, completely realized with its fluent lyricism and expressive harmony holding you like a great loving guardian.

Dudamel’s perfect timing kept the tempo expressive until the very last note – which he held in unspoiled silence to emphasize Schubert’s unfinished thoughts, leaving it to the audience’s imagination as to what Schubert would have written next had he lived to complete this great work.

As that moment ended, the audience burst into a thunderous standing ovation which commanded three curtain calls by Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestra. For more information about Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, please visit www.laphil.org

Source: Glass, Herbert. "Rendering." Performances Magazine, November 15, 2009: P3.

The copyright of the article Dudamel Conducts Schubert and Berio in Classical Music Performances is owned by Paula Edelstein. Permission to republish Dudamel Conducts Schubert and Berio in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.