Ms B & I have just returned from one of the most noteworthy but ambiguous symphony concerts we’ve seen this year. An absolutely mind-blowing, era-defining first part, and a hugely disappointing, misplaced, misdirected main part. We’ve been huge fans of Dudamel for many years (and have blogged about him before), to us he feels like the Jimi Hendrix of classical music. His directing can turn a pretty decent piece by one of the geniuses of centuries bygone into an absolutely genius work. We also like the fact that he’s a political activist and very active with his youth orchestra and plenty of other projects. The LA Phil’s three-day residency at the Barbican closed tonight with Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, preceded by the European premiere of Sustain by Andrew Norman. Sustain, roughly 40mins long, was commissioned by the orchestra to celebrate their centenary last year, and clearly to do so was the […]