A Season-Ending Crescendo with Gustavo Dudamel and the New York Philharmonic
"In my end is my beginning." - T.S. Eliot
Things are looking up at the NY Phil.
It would be nearly impossible for Gustavo Dudamel to live up to the sky-high expectations being placed upon him as the NY Philharmonic's next Music and Artistic Director. Although his tenure doesn't officially start until 2026 (he conducts six weeks next season as "Music and Artistic Director Designate"), Dudamel, 44, is already being placed in the pantheon of great Philharmonic conductors, including Mahler, Toscanini, and especially Leonard Bernstein, whose tenure (1958-69) breathed new life into the Philharmonic while expanding its audience through the then-new medium of television.
But, we live in a different time than Lenny did. This is the era of fly-in conductors, where music directors are no longer expected to live in the city in which they work, or engage with the community beyond a few fundraisers with deep-pocketed patrons. With commitments as little as 12 weeks per season, many conductors now hold two or even three music directorships simultaneously. For what these positions pay - often upwards of $3 million a year - one might wonder if the impact these (mostly) guys make is worth the cost.
Time will tell, but if the past few months are any indication, Gustavo has already made his presence felt in NYC. He was here in March to introduce the 2025-26 season, when he spoke sincerely and forcefully about how music is more then mere "entertainment." Now, in a scheduling coup, Dudamel - who remains the music director of the LA Phil and is one of the world's busiest guest conductors - is back in town to close out the Philharmonic season with a trio of programs that have shown off his prodigious skills in both new and familiar repertory.
Two weeks ago, Dudamel led a mostly-contemporary program (I went to the Friday matinee on 5/23, which was nearly-sold out) that kicked off with Stravinsky's bold Symphony in Three Movements (1942-45), a NY Phil commission. The work, partly recycled from unused film scores, was written in the shadow of World War II and sounds strikingly American, full of pulsing, maximalist sounds that seemed to foreshadow the music of John Adams, or even John Williams.
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