New Year's Day Concert 2017 VPO/Dudamel

[Prommer]

Totally hilarious. Poor singer though! (Who was the offender??)

Dashed if it isn't Kurt Moll...!

[Alison]

I'm curious. What were the charges against Mr Dudamel in the Times?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well, Carlos was Berg's son... (Retires to potting shed)

- but, of course, dim7 already knew all that.

[Barbirollians]

I'm curious. What were the charges against Mr Dudamel in the Times?

After some tedious and predictable snipes at the unchanging nature of the concert and the repertoire played ( albeit he ignored the fact there were so many rarities ) he suggested that Dudamel had no feeling for the spirit of the music .

[Alison]

After some tedious and predictable snipes at the unchanging nature of the concert and the repertoire played ( albeit he ignored the fact there were so many rarities ) he suggested that Dudamel had no feeling for the spirit of the music .

Thanks Barbs. That's absolute rubbish in my view, in fact the very opposite of the truth. See what you mean about writing before the event.

[Petrushka]

After some tedious and predictable snipes at the unchanging nature of the concert and the repertoire played ( albeit he ignored the fact there were so many rarities ) he suggested that Dudamel had no feeling for the spirit of the music .

Pity we can't read the full article but from what you've said it does have all the hallmarks of being written before it had taken place. I confess that I had some doubts about Dudamel's suitability for this concert but all such doubts were swept aside by what actually happened.

[underthecountertenor]

I can't stand Morrison, and generally disagree violently with his opinions (particularly when they are negative), but on this occasion his view rather chimes with mine, formed whilst watching the concert live on New Year's Day. But there again I was mortally hungover, so it's quite possible that I too was wrong.

[pastoralguy]

I can't stand Morrison, and generally disagree violently with his opinions (particularly when they are negative), but on this occasion his view rather chimes with mine, formed whilst watching the concert live on New Year's Day. But there again I was mortally hungover, so it's quite possible that I too was wrong.

Mrs. PG and I stayed up late having listened to a live set from the wonderful Caro Emerald on Radio2. Two bottles of champagne and numerous glasses of whisky later saw us abed at circa 02.30. However, we were still awake to hear the NYD concert on the radio then the tv. And, despite the tremendous alcohol intake, (I was working all Christmas and had saved my liver before giving them a good kicking on Hogmany!), the critical facilities were still, reasonably, intact. And, yes, we are Dude fans having seen Die Berliner Philharmoniker give him their all a couple of years ago, we thought he did a great job.

Go DUDE!

[Alison]

Mrs. PG and I stayed up late having listened to a live set from the wonderful Caro Emerald on Radio2. Two bottles of champagne and numerous glasses of whisky later saw us abed at circa 02.30. However, we were still awake to hear the NYD concert on the radio then the tv. And, despite the tremendous alcohol intake, (I was working all Christmas and had saved my liver before giving them a good kicking on Hogmany!), the critical facilities were still, reasonably, intact. And, yes, we are Dude fans having seen Die Berliner Philharmoniker give him their all a couple of years ago, we thought he did a great job.

Go DUDE!

Phew, thanks Pasters. I was beginning to doubt my own judgement!! Can't say Im a big fan of all the Venezuela stuff but I'm pretty bowled over by Vienna New Year.

[Prommer]

Can anyone verify or, if not, amplify on, the rumour that it is to be Thielemann in 2019...? I thought he had duties in Dresden just before New Year.

[Petrushka]

Can anyone verify or, if not, amplify on, the rumour that it is to be Thielemann in 2019...? I thought he had duties in Dresden just before New Year.

Where did this rumour come from? The Vienna PO don't now normally reveal who is to conduct future NYDC's until the previous one has taken place. They weren't so secretive at one time and I can remember Richard Baker revealing after the 1987 Karajan concert that the next three were to be given by Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, and Leonard Bernstein. Alas, the last never took place and Zubin Mehta stepped in.

There are rumours of Thielemann leaving Dresden, according to Lebrecht's site but who knows?

[Petrushka]

Meanwhile, indulge yourself in this enticingly priced collection.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Decca/4827558

Temporarily unavailable on Amazon but a great chance to get the VPO/Boskovsky recordings in one 8 CD box at this price.

[Prommer]

Where did this rumour come from? The Vienna PO don't now normally reveal who is to conduct future NYDC's until the previous one has taken place. They weren't so secretive at one time and I can remember Richard Baker revealing after the 1987 Karajan concert that the next three were to be given by Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, and Leonard Bernstein. Alas, the last never took place and Zubin Mehta stepped in.

There are rumours of Thielemann leaving Dresden, according to Lebrecht's site but who knows?

Someone on said site!

[bluestateprommer]

OK, nominally back to the original thread topic (....) .....

I was also very pleasantly surprised at how well El Dude led this VPO New Year's Concert, from a first listen on the internet via NYC's WQXR site (which was in turn via Boston's WBUR, because they've had first dibs for years among NPR stations as the one to get the audio feed from ORF). Unfortunately, the sound dropped out at points in my internet connection, which made for the perfect excuse to go back and listen again to the concert, which I did for Round 2 via ORF's own 1 week feed. Christoph Wagner-Trenkwitz was badly caught out at the start of the concert and with the Radetzky March, where he spoke over the start of the music in both, and couldn't quite stop everything that he felt that he had to say, or had in his script. Petroc did much better for R3, where he did stop just in time for the Lehar opener. He just barely spoke a microsecond into the Radetzky March, but immediately cut himself off. Dudamel obviously was getting on with it, as videos made clear to me that at the very start, he launched into the Lehar before the applause had fully ended, which I didn't realize from ORF and R3.

Getting into territory that I probably shouldn't get into: before this concert, and based on his Prom appearance this summer, I wondered if Dudamel was starting to burn out, as his podium manner at the RAH this summer seemed a bit perfunctory. Things can't have been easy for him recently, since his marriage ended, and separately the whole political mess in his home country which has tainted El Sistema to some degree. Those events can't but have had some effect on him. In that light, this engagement with the VPO must have been the perfect tonic for him now.

He generally paced the music well, and got the blended sound that pretty much only the VPO can produce on demand with music of the Strauss family. The one number that was the real surprise for me was Johann II's "Auf zum Tanze!", which I've started "hitting repeat", so to speak, on the videos when I stop by them. One other example of how well GD led the proceedings was in the closer to the first half, "So ängstlich sind wir nicht!". I remember that Maazel led this quick polka in the New Year's Concert back in the 1980's, and it sounded much more tense then, with some very self-conscious vocal interjections from the orchestra. By contrast, Dudamel was much more natural in his pacing of the orchestra, even though the tempo didn't seem all that much slower compared to what I recall from Maazel. GD had the sense, when required, to let the orchestra play without forcing anything in this instance. I don't doubt that El Dude will get this gig again in the future, and based on this appearance, he well deserves it.

On other scattered comments in this thread that I'm too lazy to number:
* SSR: I've seen him conduct "Voices of Spring" in Philadelphia. So Johann Strauss isn't beyond his capability, or taste. Once SSR has finished his work in Berlin, the VPO will probably extend the invitation to him, if they haven't done so already.
* Ladies in the band: Petroc "brought up the issue" with his simple comment about seeing 7 women on stage, but simply mentioning a number, and letting us take it from there. Given that he obviously was constrained from wherever he was sitting, he didn't do too badly on the count. My own count was 9 women, after making mental notes as the videos went along, and I had to watch very carefully to do the count. Besides Albena Danailova in the co-concertmaster's chair, I counted three additional women in the first violins, one in the second violins, two in the violas, one cellist (Ursula Wex), and harpist Anneleen Lenaerts.
* Nelsons: I wouldn't doubt that the VPO have extended the invitation, at a guess. Maybe Nelsons wants that time off, since he and his wife do have a kid, after all.
* The lady in green: maybe that's his new gf, unless the older folks there are his parents and he has a sister. No idea there, in all honesty.

[Alison]

Good summary BSP. I saw back stage photos on Facebook (I think) which included GD sitting with the lady in green. They looked ' together '.

I still think this was the best NYD concert in recent years.