What has Dudamel actually done?
OrchestrasThe hyerventialted coverage of Gustavo Dudamel’s transition in the New York Times has obscured more than it clarified.
His ten best recordings? Only West Side Story made real headlines.
His past jobs? Count on one finger: Gothenburg Symphny Orchestra.
His achievements in Los Angeles? Very extensive. Most significant, he transformed a wrong-coast orchestra into a destination for the world’s best musicians. None of his predecessors came close.
But there’s more.
Dudamel has a feelgood factor that helps musicians feel cherished and upifted.
He makes audiences feel part of the conversation and delivers at least four memorable concerts per season.
He created a youth orchestra – YOLA – that embraces some of the city’s most deprived communities.
He has first call on America’s two most marketable composers – John Williams and John Adams.
He was the first conductor to form an alliance with box-office star Yuja Wang.
He moves easily in Hollywood, helped by Spielberg and Williams.
He has stuck to the same agent throughout his career.
He has made himself transnational, putting Venezuela behind him and adopting Spanish citizenship.
He is learning French in Paris without ever having mastered English to media fluency.
He is something of a systems genius, knowing how to make organisations work for his greater benefit.
Whether that makes him the next Bernstein is rather more debatable.
Here’s a little trick from the early days:
Yannick…..?
Please can everyone just stop with all this “next Bernstein” crap!! He came and went, and there will never be another one. Gustavo is the next Dudamel – period!
In Texas there is a saying: “all hat and no cattle.” That’s Dudamel.
I have not heard him conduct in person. But it has always seemed to me that he was heavily promoted strictly because of the “sistema” that created his career in the first place. The few times I’ve watched him I inferred a great deal of choreography and emoting that were meant to convey to the audience that he was conducting really great music, enjoying it very, very much, and doing a really great job of inspiring the musicians. As an interpreter, he doesn’t seem to impress one way or another, and I think time will tell as to how well he does in NYC. They used to be impressed with extramusical antics and an undeniable whiff of show biz and promotion, but that was a long time ago, and the economics of sustaining a major symphony orchestra have changed dramatically. The fiscal benefits of recording contracts are almost non-existent and the sad fact is that musical life across many demographics has contracted, owing to a variety of factors.
The question in my mind is whether he can pull off a coherent and sublime adagio. I would love to hear from those of you who have heard him live.
Yep. Leftists fell in love with a 60 Minutes expose’. That is all there is behind this HACK
Nobody gets appointed conductor of the LA Phil on the basis of good press from sistema. When LA signed Gustavo, he was already the hottest candidate to come along in years. Chicago wanted him. Anyone with a vacancy wanted him. He was personally hand-picked by Salonen as well as Borda after a process lasting several years. All manner of authorities were impressed with him. You can disagree with them, but you cannot say he was not ripe for the position by any fair standard. LA could have gotten nearly anyone they wanted who was not under contract elsewhere. Under Salonen, they were already top tier. Whatever charisma Dudamel has is just a lucky bonus. Sure, we would have liked an Ormandy or a Haitink, but none of those sort were to be had.
One member of the Board commentary: Great hair!
You can check the press at the time of his nomination!
Ormandy? Seriously? Lush sound and no interpretive mojo.
I believe that as a marketing move, the NY Phil’s hiring Dudamel is a masterful stroke that will pay great dividends.
As a musical move, well…I’ve heard nothing so far from GD that makes me believe he will be remembered as one of the all-time greats whose recordings serious music lovers will want to have their collections. His Bruckner 9 was vin ordinaire and far from a great performance. His Shostakovich 10 that I saw on video offered visceral thrills but little else (and at times I was wondering if he really understood the undercurrents in the music). All hat no cattle? From a musical perspective, so far that seems more accurate than not when it comes to the core repertory. But let’s hear his music-making with the orchestra before we make big conclusions. He may yet still become formidable in the core repertoire in a way that he is not today.
In his case, all hair and no cattle.
which by the way applies equally to Texas women in general
Can’t you just be as thrilled as many New Yorkers (indeed, the world) is that we will have an arguably great conductor leading one of the world’s finest orchestras? And simply leave it at that.
Can’t you just stop carping?
Lebrecht complaining about “carping”??? If it wasn’t for carping, Lebrecht wouldn’t have anything to say about anything.
But it’s the New York Philharmonic. Remember the coverage on Alan Gilbert and Jaap van Zweden?
The beyond weird PR photos of both Gilbert (the one of his relection in a plate glass window was particularly creepy) and van Zweden (not ready for his closeup) were plastered all over the upper west side during start of their tenures. I often wondered if there was still an army of superb musicians on stage…
Promote what the product actually is. A cutsy smile or a slew of adjectives never sold a ticket…twice.
I agree that conductor promotion is unfair to musicians. A comparison between Karajan videos and current Berlin Philharmonic Digital Concert Hall videos is revealing.
But in my previous post I was referring to the SD coverage on NYPO directors.
The NY Phil. has suffered for decades under music Directors that the majority of musicians never voted for: glaring example of one = NYP orchestra voted for Ricardo Muti and got someone else who did not add luster to NYP history. The Dudamel decision was happily welcomed since they have already had warm musical experiences with him.
Wait & enjoy the obvious joy on stage & in the audience.
no one considers the NY Phil as ” one of the world’s finest” least of all the NYT, although it is undisputed that it is one of the world’s more well known orchestras
“The next Bernstein”. Unfair to saddle anybody with this. I have played under both Bernstein and Dudamel. Dudamel is a fine conductor and an extraordinary asset to any community wherein he works. Bernstein was a generational genius. I have never encountered anyone in my life who inhabits the same galaxy as Leonard Bernstein.
I find that even when the NYT says “Next Bernstein” they actually mean a conductor who can cross over into popular culture with their name recognition and be something of an ambassador for classical music.
And that’s fine and dandy, I know “celebrity” can be a pejorative to some, but I would say Yo-Yo Ma has that same power and very few would question that he is a top notch musician. However, it really is unfair to try to force someone to live up to Bernstein’s shadow because his genius applied to so many areas: conductor, composer, and very critically as one of the greatest and most thoughtful communicators we’ve ever seen. I like Dudamel and agree he is a great artistic asset to his community, but I could never imagine him giving an imaginative explanation of Beethoven 5 on primetime network television that makes a non-classical audience care about the subject. Let Dudamel be Dudamel and let Bernstein dine alone.
I agree, Max
You didn’t mean Yannick, did you Norman?
thanks!
Thanks for clarifying. I was thinking Icarus. Lessons are rarely learned.
Dudamel has always seemed to me, as purely a listener, as the epitome of hype. Whether he is overhyped I leave to others to argue. As I will never experience his conducting live I can only ask whether there is any particular piece of the repertoire in which he can be ranked alongside other conductors as offering the definitive interpretation? He’s here, he’s there, he gets all the best gigs. He clearly has good representation. But the question for me is, does he live up to the hype that surrounds him?
He definitely did during those first international performances of the SBYO. An early jump-in for Neeme Jarvi with the Gothenburg SO on tour too (an amazing Sibelius 5). I have rarely heard any exceptional world standard interpretation with other orchestras since. BUT he is an international media star who sells seats, which is about the msot important thing these days.
“….he can be ranked alongside other conductors as offering the definitive interpretation? ”
Definitive interpretations do not exist.
And I sincerely hope he will perform “forgotten”, rarely played works.
Hyperventilated coverage? Yes, that is exactly what THIS website has been doing. I haven’t seen this much “coverage”, concerning Dudamel, on any other website.
But, no. LA Times’ Mark Swed is Dudamel’s chief bullhorn ..
“He transformed a wrong-coast orchestra into a destination for the world’s best musicians. None of his predecessors came close.”
So untrue!
I’m an east coaster, but I’ve never considered California to be on the “wrong” coast, just the other side.
I think Salonen had a thing or two to do with that – including the commissioning of one of the world’s finest halls.
The best-coast orchestra was already becoming a destination because of Disney hall, during Salonen’s era. Dudamel was a continuation of that momentum.
What about Giulini’s tenure in L.A.? And Edward Van Beinum ? Why does no one mention Klemperer in the 1930’s?
Last fall, we heard him conduct the Paris Opera orchestra in Mahler’s Ninth at Barcelona’s Liceu and it was wonderful. His pacing and shaping of the score were masterful, and his rapport with the orchestra was genuine: they were smiling and played like their lives depended on it. He’s the real deal.
Smiling during Mahler’s Ninth?
I agree with the comments about the LA Phil. Always a professional group, they’ve been transformed into a much better one. Still heavy on the brass and timpani at times, but some audiences prefer that (Chicago still).
However, Dudamel’s interpretations are variable. The recordings of the last 3 Dvorak symphonies seem episodic and choppy (the playing is fine) to me. I had a similar reaction to his Mahler 9th, but enjoyed the 4th movement.
He will bring media attention and recordings to the NY Phil. But a legacy of great music making? Time will tell.
Much better than they sounded under Giulini? In what way?
At this point in time, you can see the sensibilities of each of the US major cities in the choice of their music directors. It’s very interesting.
The LA Philharmonic was a fine orchestra before him, and before Mehta for that matter, as you can hear in their recordings under Leinsdorf, Stokowski, Klemperer, Wallenstein.
Carlo Maria Giulini made sublime recordings with the LAPO.
A lot of good points there but his English is quite competent.
And BTW, Esa-Pekka Salonen did much to bring the LA Phil to prominence; Dudamel was building on that to a large extent.
I’m not sure – since the LA Phil doesn’t have its own Digital Concert Hall for the world to see what they do every week – that his achievements in LA have in fact been properly noticed, esp. now that orchestras don’t record as they once did – there’s no longer a Bernstein/NY, Chicago/Solti/Reiner, Szell/Cleveland type pairing in the record catalogues.
One thing is not “debatable” at all: no one can possibly be “the next Bernstein”. However, my many opportunities of working with Gustavo Dudamel – particularly during the last few years when he has noticeably matured and improved in many important ways – make me fairly confident that starting three years from now most of the NY Phil musicians and most of their listeners will begin regularly having some of the most satisfying and most exciting musical experiences of at least the last three decades if not four or even five – in other words, ever since the great Leonard’s tenure as their artistic leader was over.
“transformed a wrong-coast orchestra”?!?!
Norman, you seriously cannot mean the orchestra of Klemperer, Mehta, Giulini, Previn and Salonen? The LA Phil has been doing great things long before Dudamel. Between the Phil and San Francisco Symphony, not to leave out the SF and LA Operas, the West Coast has been dominant for quite some time.
The style of leadership has also been hugely important. Ernest Fleishmann and Deborah Borda. Ernest was revolutionary in many ways.
Additionally, one cannot underestimate the influence of the Hollywood Bowl. Cash Cow.
“The Los Angeles Philharmonic, with its Frank Gehry-designed Disney Hall as well as the Hollywood Bowl, garnered about $187 million in yearly revenue before the pandemic. The New York Philharmonic earned $86 million”
Please Norman, do some actual research next time!
Norman is right about Dudamel’s English fluency. After 17 years, his English is still basic. He still uses a personal assistant/translator and all his interviews with the LA Times have used an interpreter.
Alex Ross wrote:
“The Salonen era in L.A. may mark a turning point in the recent history of classical music in America. It is a story not of an individual magically imprinting his personality on an institution—what Salonen has called the “empty hype” of conductor worship—but of an individual and an institution bringing out unforeseen capabilities in each other, and thereby proving how much life remains in the orchestra itself, at once the most conservative and the most powerful of musical organisms. … no American orchestra matches the L.A. Philharmonic in its ability to assimilate a huge range of music on a moment’s notice. [Thomas] Adès, who first conducted his own music in L.A. [in 2005] and has become an annual visitor, told me, “They always seem to begin by finding exactly the right playing style for each piece of music—the kind of sound, the kind of phrasing, breathing, attacks, colors, the indefinable whole. That shouldn’t be unusual, but it is.” John Adams calls the Philharmonic “the most Amurrican [sic] of orchestras. They don’t hold back and they don’t put on airs. If you met them in twos or threes, you’d have no idea they were playing in an orchestra, that they were classical-music people.”
Later that same year, Deborah Borda, then the Executive Director of the New York Philharmonic, was hired to take over executive management of the orchestra. She began her tenure in January 2000, and was later given the title of President and Chief Executive Officer. After financial problems experienced during Wijnbergen’s short tenure, Borda — “a formidable executive who runs the orchestra like a lean company, not like a flabby non-profit” — “put the organization on solid financial footing.”[1] She is widely credited (along with Salonen, Frank Gehry, and Yasuhisa Toyota) for the orchestra’s very successful move to Walt Disney Concert Hall, and for wholeheartedly supporting and complementing Salonen’s artistic vision. One example cited by Alex Ross:
“Perhaps Borda’s boldest notion is to give visiting composers such as [John] Adams and Thomas Adès the same royal treatment that is extended to the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and Joshua Bell; Borda talks about “hero composers.” A recent performance of Adams’s monumental California symphony “Naïve and Sentimental Music” in the orchestra’s Casual Fridays series … drew a nearly full house. Borda’s big-guns approach has invigorated the orchestra’s long-running new-music series, called Green Umbrella, which Fleischmann established in 1982. In the early days, it drew modest audiences, but in recent years attendance has risen to the point where as many as sixteen hundred people show up for a concert that in other cities might draw thirty or forty. The Australian composer Brett Dean recently walked onstage for a Green Umbrella concert and did a double-take, saying that it was the largest new-music audience he’d ever seen.”
Yes, but what has he ever done for ME?!
After LA, I don’t think Dudamel would have fit at any other America orchestra other than the NY Phil. If he had instead gone to, for example, Chicago or Philadelphia – much less Dallas – that would have caused reactions of, “what the hell?” However, his transferring to a European one (the historic hub of classical–and Paris Opera is opera first and foremost), such as Vienna, would have been seen as a logical next step.
The Vienna Philharmonic don‘t have a chief conductor or music director.
Can’t imagine a problem with him going to any other American orchestra. Especially Chicago from what I gather. Why would he not “fit in?”
Leonard Bernstein was a great musician, composer, educator, and an excellent conductor. He was not a Fritz Reiner, George Szell, Arturo Toscanini, Guido Cantelli, Carlos Kleiber, Hans Rosbaud, Klaus Tennstedt, Claudio Abbado or Riccardo Muti, in my opinion (I can just imagine the anti-Muti comments I will receive). His Young People’s Concerts will never be matched and the things he accomplished later in life were impressive and memorable, to say the least. However, let’s not forget that when he was music director of the New York Philharmonic, he was not universally accepted and adored by the New York critics and public, which does not necessarily mean all that much. His tenure with the orchestra was not as hugely successful as we are now made to believe it was. Having said that, I wish we had a Bernstein today. Whether or not Dudamel will fill that role is yet to be seen, but frankly, I’m not at all certain that comparisons are wise and necessary. Dudamel is Dudamel – he is his own man and will make his own mark on the New York Philharmonic, just as he did so brilliantly in Los Angeles. We all have a tendency to glorify the past, even if the past was, in actuality, not so remarkable.
Conductors seem to be one of those things no two people can agree on. Yes, I would put several dozen above either Muti or Abbado, but every conductor has their good and bad points. None do everything well. Including Bernstein. But it will always be a matter of personal taste. No one should be demeaned for making
interpretive choices that don’t quite fit what you are accustomed to. There is no one right way to approach any piece. There will always be ambiguity, so all of these conductors deserve at least some grudging respect.
Bravo! Could not have been said better.
Perfect Millennial. All show. No go.
A complete lightweight HACK.
I, for one, am extremely tired of the constant browbeating of Jaap van Zweden, Y. Nezet-Seguin, Andris Nelsons and G. Dudamel. If you don’t want to see an orchestra program conducted by one them, then don’t go. Stop complaining. I’m far more interested in what the actual program of a concert is, than worrying about who’s waving the stick. I have good recordings from all four of those men. I’ve seen three of them in concert, and they were very, very good. We’re they Furtwaengler? . . . No – I wasn’t looking for Furtwaengler.
I heard him conduct the LAPO at the Barbican in London. It was a fantastic concert, full of energy and drive. There was a piece by Ginestera, the UK premiere of John Adams’ “Why must the devil have all the best tunes?” with Yuja Wang and Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” and Sousa’s “Liberty Bell” as an encore. Based on that one experience, I would rate him very highly. I think the repertoire that evening played to his strengths.
However, after Bernstein and André Previn conductors are expected to be excellent communicators with the general public. Alan Gilbert, no doubt a skillful conductor, as evidenced by his award winning Nielsen cycle, may have lacked the extrovert personality of another predecessor, Zubin Mehta.
So who are the wonderkinds who possess the full suite of skills that a modern media-savvy maestro is expected to have?
Simon Rattle has recognition and obvious intelligence as shown by his recent article on Stravinsky. Daniel Barenboim is recognised for bring Arab and Israeli musicians together.
But whi else has recognition outside of the classical arena that Bernstein and Previn had?
I also find his refusal to bow at concerts somewhat renegade (“humble?”), but ultimately adds more awkwardness than anyone asked for. Hope he’ll just go with the flow in NYC, take a bow, and not draw so much attention to that quirk.
I have seen and heard scores of concerts conducted by Gustavo here during the last 12 years…he is the most self-effacing of conductors at concert’s end…he takes time to give bows to every soloist and ensemble in the orchestra…then he turns the band around 180 degrees to acknowledge the crowds in the “cheap” seats behind…he is a consummate musician who will only grow greater with time… we have been lucky to have him here at his launch and I am sure he will reinvigorate a great orchestra in NY… btw, I give equal credit to Essa-Pekka who built the orchestra and Disney Hall…and Zubin before… we have been blessed in LA.
I am a born and bred LosAngeleno and have listened to the LA Phil for almost 50 years. Dudamel is definitely not the best but he is far from the worst as well. Without question, the orchestra brings its A game when he is conducting. Salonen may have been a better conductor but the orchestra was definitely losing its luster under him. Half the orchestra was just looking to retire by the time Dudamel arrived on the scene. Since Dudamel arrived, the orchestra has gone through a massive house cleaning and the orchestra just seems to be getting better every year. Giulini was my favorite conductor in LA but we are long ways away from those days now. Kudos to Ms. Borda for snagging Dudamel for New York. He will definitely fill the seats even if his conducting never really rises to the level of Maazel, Masur, Szell or Bernstein (just to name a few).
I agree perhaps with you, Mike…nobody is Guililini (or Klemperer, for that matter), but Gustavo is extremely hard-working and very gifted…I have loved him here in LA even though I equally love Essa-Pekka, who is a great conductor and a darn good composer…Dudumel is 45…Sallonen just a generation older…they both have years to grow and approach (perhaps achieve) a certain kind of greatness. 28 years between them, a tenure few orchestras in the world can celebrate…certainly not the NY Phil, which is a fine orchestra.
Dudamol, Ticciati, Viotti, Harding, Thielemann, Nelsons,
Măcelaru.
Mahler would have said, I don’t want these, show me talent!
I agree with you regarding all those names, except Thielemann who has conducted quite a lot of superb performances p, both in opera and in concert. Dudamel is also much better than the others, judging from several performances with the Vienna Phil, the Paris radio orchestra and the Gothenburg.
Just summoned Mahler’s ghost, and he requested you not to put words in his mouth. He said he has hope for all classical musicians, as one of God’s personal music advisors.
I could add that he was invited to conduct the New Year Concert with — what? — 32? Karajan had to wait 50 years more. And when he did, orchestral players of my acquaintance were sarcastic about the achievement.
This is also debatable: “His ten best recordings? Only West Side Story made real headlines.”
This web site (and there are many) lists: in addition to the West Side Story, Antonín Dvořák: Symphonies Nos. 7 – 9 [on DG]; Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 8, “Symphony of a Thousand” (on DG); The Symphonies of Gustav Mahler [with BP]; Stravinsky: The Firebird (special edition, Wiener Philharmonic); LA Phil 100: The Los Angeles Philharmonic Centennial Birthday Gala; Charles Ives: Complete Symphonies [on DG]; Celebrating John Williams [on DG]; Andrew Norman: Sustain [World Premier on DG]; and over 20 more. See https://www.gustavodudamel.com/recordings
Get a life.
Dudamel bio: when poor, took advantage of Sistema propaganda to pull some strings and get ahead as “non privileged”. When rich, bought some spanish citizenship to distance himself from Venezuelan dictatorship. Conducts well, make some show on the stage and help others when is convenient. Better than many, but deserves so much attention? No.
¿Some spanish citizenship? An Spaniard citizenship!
bernstein could not be bernstein today
different times, different world
classical music will never be at the center of american cultural or aspirational life any more. never.
Was born in 1990, so wasn’t around during Bernstein’s peak years but was Bernstein pretty well known in pop culture?
“transformed a wrong-coast orchestra”?!?!
Norman, you seriously cannot mean the orchestra of Klemperer, Mehta, Giulini, Previn and Salonen? The LA Phil has been doing great things long before Dudamel. Between the Phil and San Francisco Symphony, not to leave out the SF and LA Operas, the West Coast has been dominant for quite some time.
The style of leadership has also been hugely important. Ernest Fleishmann and Deborah Borda. Ernest was revolutionary in many ways.
Additionally, one cannot underestimate the influence of the Hollywood Bowl. Cash Cow.
“The Los Angeles Philharmonic, with its Frank Gehry-designed Disney Hall as well as the Hollywood Bowl, garnered about $187 million in yearly revenue before the pandemic. The New York Philharmonic earned $86 million”
Please Norman, do some actual research next time!
He is no doubt a great conductor and I am happy he comes here to the NYP. I have heard great concerts with him a few times.
But the next Bernstein? LB was a genius that comes along once in a century if lucky. LB was no only a phantastic conductor, he was a brilliant composer, an outstanding teacher and great Mensch!
Glad for you that you easily buy all the hype but he was hardly a mensch. Do a little research.
“…transformed a wrong-coast orchestra”?!?!
FWIW, I think when Norman wrote that, he was being a bit cheeky or tongue-in-cheek.
However, the two sides of the Atlantic are geographically closer than is the distance from Europe to the western side of North America. But when I read about Europeans from over 90 years ago (way before the age of jet travel), I’m surprised how the ones similar to Igor Stravinsky were willing to travel all the miles of the continental US. Then again, America (the world too) was originally settled by people, aware they may become seasick, who tolerated all the miles spent on slow-moving ships.
Nonetheless, Dudamel works in Paris, has a residence in I believe Madrid (his wife is native to Spain) and probably finds the commute from there to LA to be a bit of a slog.
]]]Most significant, he transformed a wrong-coast orchestra into a destination for the world’s best musicians. None of his predecessors came close[[[
This may approach being accurate if we are talking in the PR sense. Duda has star power and charisma worth their weight in gold for the PR that draws top talent. However, in the music-and-art sense–not exactly. It was under Salonen that LAPhil evolved into the exquisite instrument that is arguably the world’s finest orchestra. As for LAPhil’s justified renown for championing and foregrounding new work . . . that commitment is more or less a draw between Duda and his predecessor.
“Dudamel has a feelgood factor that helps musicians feel cherished and upifted.”
“He makes audiences feel part of the conversation and delivers at least four memorable concerts per season.”
These are both pretty important. If you want musicians to feel what they are delivering is worthwhile, and make audiences feel they are part of the event, giving them a reason to come out to the hall.
Only four? Surely far more. It’s a long season. Four would be, well, pretty damn poor.
The thing about the ‘Dude’, is there’s no danger in his music making, it’s all fairly harmless, there’s no edge. Very poor music making from young conductors these days who appear to spend time modelling clothes, expensive watches and perfumes. The great orchestras, VPO, RCO etc are suffering and so is the music.
Why is the media calling this a “defection”? Nobody expected his LA Phil job to be permanenant and, frankly, I’m yearning for a new face after 10 years, hopefully someone Central European!
A clown on the podium of Bruno Walter and Dimitri Mitropulos?
Gany Kay had more class
One thing that is NOT “debatable” is the fact that no one is or can possibly be “the next Bernstein”. As for Gustavo Dudamel, he is a very talented conductor who has been steadily getting better recently, which makes me fairly confident that starting just over three years from now most of the NY Phil musicians as well as most of their listeners will start regularly having some of the most deeply satisfying and truly exciting musical experiences since at least three decades ago if not four or even five when the great and beloved Leonard left them.
Glad I dont like live in NYC. Dudamel is a snow boater. Not much substance but a lot of flash.
Dudamel is overrated. None of that garbage about Spielberg ,
Hollywood , Williams etc. means anything artistically. He’s a publicity-stunt whore. He has a lot of talent, but he should quit the hype and deepen as an interpreter. Energy and stick technique are not nearly everything. His symphonic knowledge is great, but his opera isn’t.
You forgot the most important thing:
He’s a conducting animal! He beathes, eats and drinks conducting like no other conductor today. Enough said!
No Dudamel will never become a Bernstein but he’s a remarkable musician who will succeed wherever he goes. Yes, Williams is a remarkably talented and influential composer but I think Adams is only a trendy and overrated composer whose music is more repetitive gibberish than substance. Gustavo will attract new audiences and energize the great orchestra which needs an infusion of new blood.