Review: Mahler 6 with Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil

January 12, 2024, 8:55 PM · On Thursday night Gustavo Dudamel led the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a stunning, sold-out performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 6 - the "Tragic Symphony" at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Moving through the joy and bluster, the heartache and redemption in this symphony, with one man wielding the power of 100 musicians - it had the epic feel of a milestone concert.

That's because it was. Gustavo Dudamel - Music and Artistic Director of the LA Phil for 15 years, will be leaving Los Angeles in a few years - transitioning to the New York Philharmonic, first as Music Director Designate in 2025–26, then as Artistic Director in 2026-27.

We better see as much of him as we can, while we can.

Making this concert feel even more like a "bookend" is the fact that Dudamel's tenure with the LA Phil began with Mahler - for his official "Inaugural Concert" as the Los Angeles Philharmonic's new Music Director back in 2009, Dudamel conducted Mahler's Symphony No. 1. Just a few years later in 2012, Dudamel led "The Mahler Project" - performances of all nine Mahler symphonies, featuring LA Phil and Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.

I actually attended all of those Mahler symphony performances and wrote about them, and my son Brian, who was 11 years old at the time, sang in both Mahler 3 and Mahler 8, as a member of the Los Angeles Children's Choir. He was much taken with Dudamel - who was 30 at the time, one of the youngest conductors of a major symphony. Dudamel demanded much, but treated the kids with respect and humor.

Brian, now 23, sat next to me for Thursday's concert, and when the grey-haired maestro walked on stage, I think we both suddenly felt the passage of time.

Maestro Dudamel, conducting Mahler 8 in 2012, and now.

Laurie and son Brian: Two Mahler/Dudamel fans in 2012, and on Thursday night at Disney Hall.

The music of Mahler, however, is timeless. This concert featured only Mahler 6 - and it needed nothing else to be complete. As I mentioned earlier, the house was full, thus the audience surrounded the orchestra on all sides. We sat in the balcony over stage right, behind the first violins and with a great view of Dudamel.

Before beginning, Dudamel announced from the podium that the orchestra would play the movements in a different order than was in the program. There has been much debate about the order of two middle movements in Mahler 6 - Mahler conceived the symphony with the Scherzo second and the slow-movement Andante third, but then changed his mind and reversed that. After much study and time with these works, Dudamel said he has concluded that either way is correct, but he chose to go with the first conception: Scherzo, then the slow movement. I'd never heard it played this way, but it worked well.

The Sixth begins with a rather aggressive, fateful-sounding march, contrasted by a soaring melody. From the beginning, this was a strong performance, and that strength came from steadfast attention to the multitude of details in this piece. Mahler asks for a lot of - frankly - inconvenient musical gestures. These can be difficult to negotiate but, the musicians of the LA Phil were on it - every odd swell, every quirky accent, every sudden and radical change of dynamics, tempo and mood. By the end of the first movement, Dudamel was smiling the center of a wild victory storm.

The Scherzo, with its biting, off-kilter beginning, fit nicely as the second movement. The bone-rattling and skittish laughter of the beginning segues into a gentle dance, at times tipsy, at times sultry (program notes say it represents "the unrhythmical games of the two little children, tottering in zigzags over the sand"). Here Dudamel was so fun to watch, raising an eyebrow here, cueing the odd interruption there. Every time this movement calmed down, it spun back into darkness and noise. Toward the end was a lovely concertmaster solo by Martin Chalifour - then the dance breaks apart - it seems to scatter itself across the orchestra, fragments popping up from different instruments. In this cohesive group the pulse never faltered.

The end of the Scherzo movement - the way it peters out - functioned well to set up the slow movement. And - don't shoot me - it would have functioned even better with no applause between the movements! Ah well, I do appreciate the enthusiasm.

The "Andante moderato" from Mahler 6 is certainly among the most beautiful and poignant movements in classical music - a beautiful summer evening - a love that achingly can't last. Principal Andrew Bain played the a horn solo near the beginning with melting perfection. The theme comes back again and again, in many colors and textures, even occasionally with clanging cowbells. Dudamel kept it always moving, never stagnant. The movement builds to such a full-orchestra fever; on this night everyone was absolutely playing the heck out of it, and how exciting to ride that wave of sound and energy.

Of course, between all the waves of sound in this symphony there is also a lot of tightrope walking, and these musicians consistently showed steady balance when exposed and alone on the high wire. Likewise, Dudamel gave decisive direction to the overall endeavor, with never a whiff of hesitation.

The slow movement segued well to final movement, with its unsteady-sounding beginning, like a meandering, underwater wonderworld. It seems to search for a beat and then, finding it, it locks down on it hard. This movement features the famous "hammer blows" and they did not disappoint - I was at just the right angle to notice Principal Percussionist Matthew Howard climbing up four or five wooden steps with a giant strongman mallet to then slam it down onto a big wooden box (big enough to require steps!)

There was so much volume, effort, human motion and energy in this performance, it was only appropriate that the audience give back - thus one of the longest ovations I've seen. The audience clapped, rose to their feet, and kept clapping. There were at least three ovations, and Dudamel recognized every section of the orchestra.

What a beautiful victory for live orchestral music this night at Disney Hall. May there be more!

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