Dudamel's first year a mixed bag, says Swed

In a critic's notebook piece, L.A. Times music critic Mark Swed looked back at the inaugural season with Gustavo Dudamel at the head of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. These seem to be the salient paragraphs:

Judged by the standards of a mere mortal music director, Dudamel had a remarkable first season. He delivered many exciting performances and a couple of great ones. He took chances and cheerfully flew, more than once, by the seat of his pants. He has a lot yet to learn. He may be experiencing growing pains (and ones that will continue for a while). Nothing remotely conclusive can be said about him at this point....

Dudamel is always on. He phones in nothing. He conducts in a state of awe and gusto. He takes risks. He values sound — rich, expressive, magical sound — over structure, and he loves to push the envelope. His energy supply would be the envy of nations.

But these aren't qualities that everyone in this field admires, as might be gathered from some of the reviews of the U.S. tour. While most of the musicians in the orchestra adore him, a few complain that Dudamel belabors points. They miss Esa-Pekka Salonen's focus and sense of organization.

So even if everything wasn't brilliant, Swed writes, "there was also the sheer pleasure of never knowing what to expect, not only from program to program but from night to night."

And about the Ring Cycle: "I was struck all over again," Swed writes in another critic's notebook about opening weekend, "by the strange beauty of this spectacle, the Cinerama-scaled panorama of the proscenium and the combination of high tech and primitive theater techniques, by the scenes of dramatic immediacy and those ineffably aloof, by silliness and profundity in such close quarters....For the most part, the performances Saturday and Sunday went smoothly."