Beethoven 5 and 7; Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Beethoven
Alex Ross wrote in the New Yorker: "The incoming music director [of the LA Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel] was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, in 1981. … He studied music from an early age, learning the basics of notation and theory before he took up an instrument, the violin, at the age of ten. He showed an interest in composition, and, at one of his early conducting gigs, at the age of fifteen, he led his own Trombone Concerto. Conducting quickly took over, and by his late teens he was leading ninety concerts a year with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, the chief ensemble in Venezuela's youth-ensemble system. … Having won notice at the Bamberg competition in 2004, Dudamel found himself in the tricky position of being hailed as a savior of classical music. It only added to the furor that he was a non-Caucasian face in an industry suffering from the appearance of élitism. Last year, Deutsche Grammophon recorded him leading Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh Symphonies with the youth orchestra. … [T]he interpretations were expertly handled" ("The Anti-Maestro," 4/30/07, p. 70).