Los Angeles Philharmonic announces 2010-11 season: 12 weeks of Dudamel
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Basking in the popularity of Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is using an online press conference Tuesday morning to announce that — unlike most recession-weary arts organizations — it will hold the course.
The orchestra’s 2010-11 season and the Venezuelan’s second as music director will include 12 subscription weeks conducted by Dudamel at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the return of Esa-Pekka Salonen and the premieres of 19 new works, 12 commissioned by the Philharmonic. Two composer-focused festivals, a European tour, new-music concerts and an expanded education program will also compete for attention amid dizzying myriad programs and activities.
“This is where we can make a difference, by not relenting,” Deborah Borda, the L.A. Philharmonic president, said recently. “And Gustavo has been the spirit behind everything.” She also noted that ticket sales have remained high, with Dudamel’s concerts regularly selling out and that the organization averages around 92% capacity for the more than 150 concerts it presents each season at Disney Hall.
Dudamel, taking part in the press conference via video from Caracas, Venezuela, is inevitably the season’s center of attention. His opening-night gala will feature Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez. The big work of his two fall subscription concerts will be Olivier Messiaen’s massively ecstatic “Turangalila” Symphony.
Throughout May and in early June, Dudumel will continue the “unbound” series, which Salonen began to place classical composers in 21st century contexts, with “Brahms Unbound.”
Saying on the press conference video that “music is not about moments, music is about eternity,” Dudamel will pair Brahms’ four symphonies with, respectively, the world or U.S. premieres: of Osvaldo Golijov’s Violin Concerto (written for Leonidas Kavakos), Sofia Gubaidulina’s “Glorious Percussion,” Peter Lieberson’s Percussion Concerto (with Pedro Carneiro as soloist) and Henryk Górecki’s Fourth Symphony. Steve Mackay’s “Beautiful Passing” will complement Brahms’ “A German Requiem.”
Click here for the full story and here for a full list of the season.
-- Mark Swed
