I’ve been picking Katyana up from preschool on Mondays, and on my way down, I pass a spattering of banners near the airport. They show a young man with a mane of curly brown hair and an animated expression. The banner beside him says “LA Phil.”
His name isn’t Phil, it’s Gustavo. Gustavo Dudamel, and he’s the new conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
Everybody’s excited about him. He’s the latest LA star.
It doesn’t seem all that long (it actually was almost 20 years) since the latest star was Esa-Pekka Salonen. Dudamel is from Venezuela; Salonen was Finnish, but the feeling’s the same—the young, exciting new thing on the L.A. music scene.
The Los Angeles Philharmonic was founded by Williams Andrew Clark Jr. in 1919. Walter Henry Rothwell, whom Clark brought from the St. Paul Symphony Orchestra, continued as its conductor until his death in 1927.
Zubin Mehta was the conductor when we came to Los Angeles. We saw him and each of the conductors—Carlo Maria Giulini, Andre Previn, and Salonen—since.
By that time, the orchestra had left its home at the Philharmonic Auditorium on the northwest corner of Fifth and Olive and was ensconced in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center.
Then, in October 2003, it moved to the newly constructed Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry. According to the New Yorker, the downtown cultural landmark is “a sensational place to hear music. . . . In richness of sound, it has few rivals on the international scene, and in terms of visual drama it may have no rival at all.”
I first visited the site as a juror. During the lengthy period before construction was completed, the underground parking garage was used by the Superior Court.
When we first attended a concert in the new facility, I was surprised by the size and sprawl of it. But entering the hall itself, I fell in love with the warmth and intimacy of the wood and tropical print upholstery.
We attended concerts at the beginning and near the end and once between during Salonen’s time in Los Angeles. The one I enjoyed the most was the performance of his Los Angeles Symphony, which depicted the city’s relentless motion and cultural diversity.
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