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The capper of Gustavo Dudamel's Hollywood Bowl debut as leader of the L.A. Philharmonic last night was a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, accompanied at the end by fireworks. It killed. "A Beethoven Ninth to be remembered," critic Mark Swed writes in the L.A. Times. "This was not so much a Beethoven Ninth for the ages (he has a lot of competition), as it was a performance of Beethoven’s last and largest symphony, an iconic work of classical music with a cosmic scope and a call for universal brotherhood, for multicultural Los Angeles at this moment. Perhaps, most important, this was Beethoven for all ages." Dudamel himself waxed multi-cultural in the moment: "I'm very proud to be Latino, Venezuelan. I'm very proud to be a South American. But I'm very proud to be American." Looks as if Andy Hurvitz of Here in Van Nuys was there; nice pic.
On-demand video of the concert is at the L.A. Phil website until Monday at 11 a.m., if you can get it to work; here's a link to the Beethoven piece.
Also: Native Intelligence was there.
Photo: Here in Van Nuys