Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela

“This is the best conducting I have heard from Gustavo Dudamel, and the best playing from the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra...The playing on this disc is tremendous, with the orchestra providing a glowing central European sound.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2013 ****

“Take it for granted that the playing of the Simon Bolivar orchestra is very good. But Gustavo Dudamel isn't pre-eminent in confronting and realising the transcendence of a work totally new in its day.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2012

“you can tell from the athletic and muscular first movement of Beethoven’s Eroica that Gustavo Dudamel’s esteemed musicians are still youthful in spirit. This is a performance with plenty of powerful cut and thrust, though not enough structural planning...[in the Egmont Overture] Dudamel builds the music’s argument to a genuinely exciting conclusion.” The Times, 27th July 2012 ***

“Dudamel adopts a romantic view of the 20th-century landmark...[in La Noche de los Mayas] Dudamel hustles his young charges through juggernaut drumming, craggy chords and sassy melodies of a kind Copland mimicked in El Salón México.” The Times, 4th June 2010

“The Venezuelan players are well drilled. In Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring they play with drive and force; they follow the contours of the music; they do the things that the score implies. They are impressive in the visceral climaxes and propulsive rhythms...if Revueltas is a passion, the CD is a must.” The Telegraph, 13th June 2010 ***

“...a Rite that develops thrilling momentum twice over, fast but without haste. It's the outcome of well-judged pacing and an awareness that extremes of pace and weight have to be kept for real climaxes...Details are fine, unexaggerated, and they add up...Astonishing playing; astonishing music.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2010 *****

“...the verve of these performers is quite incredible. But can they convincingly handle The Rite, with its batty accelarations and daringly skewed rhythmic idiosyncracies? Happily, the answer is resoundingly positive throughout. Alongside the gusto and through the joie de vivre of this orchestra, they are truly microscopic in their detail.” Daniel Ross, bbc.co.uk, 7th June 2010

“Anybody who has been lucky enough to experience Gustavo Dudamel and his remarkable orchestra in a concert will want to hear this collection, a live recording from Caracas which captures the sheer joy and panache of their music-making...Dudamel has patented his own unique brand of music-making that is very special indeed.” The Guardian, 6th June 2008 *****

“The playing is polished and spirited and, if you relish catchy rhythms and vivid colours interlaced with some brooding Latin passion, then this disc is for you.” The Telegraph, 16th April 2009 ***

“As usual, the forces wielded in this live recording from Caracas approach the gargantuan: they include 17 trumpets, 15 trombones and a mere 96 strings. And again the playing quality is exceptional. Brass shining like gold; velvet, purring double-basses; gambolling woodwinds; killer percussion; violinists with 20 fingers, never afraid whatever the speed.” The Times, 6th February 2009 ****

“The playing packs a passionate punch, the aching pangs of the first movement delivered with palpable anguish, the outbursts charged with hot-blooded fury. Dudamel's pacing of the andante slow movement might tax any solo horn-player's reservoir of breath, but the youngster allotted the part here takes it mellifluously in his stride.” The Telegraph, 18th February 2009

“Though Gustavo Dudamel's achievements with his remarkable young Venezuelans may be one of the musical wonders of our time, their charisma seems to work far better live than on disc. The collection released last year was a wonderful memento of the Simón Bolívar's performances of the same pieces in concert, but their earlier recording of Mahler and Beethoven symphonies with Dudamel had been much less convincing. Though this latest Tchaikovsky release has moments of huge excitement, it doesn't begin to compete with the finest accounts of the Fifth Symphony already available. Predictably, perhaps, it's the finale of the symphony that shows Dudamel and his orchestra at their best, when they generate tremendous intensity; but until then it moves in fits and starts. The orchestral fantasy Francesca da Rimini fares no better, with the slower music under-characterised and other sections too brassily assertive. Dudamel's army of fans will get over it, of course, but he's a more satisfying interpreter than he allows himself to be here.” The Guardian, 6th March 2009 ***

“A sinewy, uninhibited Tchaikovsky Fifth - you'd expect nothing less from this source. Dudamel and his young players feed on one another; the exchange of energy is extraordinary. As for the finale… the allegro vivace comes off the starting-blocks at such a blistering pace as to register a nanosecond of disbelief that such a tempo is even possible. But the real disbelief is still to come. To better this account of Francesca da Rimini you need to go back to Stokowski or Bernstein's underrated Israel Philharmonic recording. As if the descent into Dante's inferno isn't intense enough - Dudamel's pacing of this lengthy introduction is quite masterly - the whirlwind at its core glows white hot with astonishing virtuosity displayed from every department.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2009

“These are remarkably well-played accounts of the E minor symphony and Francesca da Rimini for a youth orchestra” Sunday Times, 8th March 2009 ***

“A sinewy, uninhibited Tchaikovsky Fifth – you'd expect nothing less from this source. Dudamel and his young players feed on one another; the exchange of energy is extraordinary. Tchaikovsky's impulsive changes of tempo feel more naturally impetuous while the phrasing is directly reflected in the sound: just listen to the yearning second theme of the Allegro con anima and the way that the sheen on the violin sound intensifies with the release.
But as with their famous Prom a few years back, it's not just the fireworks but the inwardness of this performance that brings the biggest surprises. The great Andante cantabile horn theme (so soft and consoling) emerges almost imperceptibly from the somnolent harmonies of the lower strings at the start of the movement.
It's like discovering Romeo and Juliet before the unwelcome dawn – the atmosphere is extraordinarily charged. And what sweep the Simón Bolívar string-players lend the second theme, not least in the climactic return. As for the finale – well, there's nothing like headstrong youngsters to reignite an old favourite: the allegrovivace comes off the starting-blocks at such a blistering pace as to register a nanosecond of disbelief that such a tempo is even possible.
But the real disbelief is still to come. To better this account of Francesca da Rimini you need to go back to Stokowski or Bernstein. As if the descent into Dante's inferno isn't intense enough – Dudamel's pacing of this lengthy introduction is quite masterly – the whirlwind at its core glows white hot with astonishing virtuosity displayed from every department. Then the loveliest of all Tchaikovsky's lyric creations brings a limpid melancholy from the solo clarinet – truly times of happiness recalled in misery.
And though Dudamel's tempo rubato in the string-led approach to the climax may not be as abandoned as Bernstein's, it's still pretty brave.
Hearing is believing in the coda as the trombones and trumpets tumble into the abyss.
Exciting? Deliriously so.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

The fiery and gifted young maestro might have chosen lesser-known Latin American works for his debut on Deutsche Grammophon. Instead he opted for two of the most fequently recorded staples of the repertory: Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh Symphonies. The gamble has certainly paid off. The members of the Caracas-based Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra . . . combine youthful enthusiasm, technical finesse and mature profundity: a rare combination, and an ideal one to capture the urgency and optimism of Beethoven's Fifth. From the works sinister opening motif through the lyrical second movement to the spirited final allegro, there is a refreshing sense of excitement. Since this is, presumably, the first time most of theses young musicians have played the work, their polished reading is all the more impressive. In Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, Mr. Dudamel again elicits gorgeous phrasing from strings and winds. The hused, beautifully shaded Allegretto is particularly lovely, and the spirited Allegro comes off with unbridled brio. Record Review / Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times / 27 August 2006

“There's a scarcely believable freshness and virtuosity in the playing…” BBC Music Magazine, October 2006 ****

“On the evidence of these performances - a vibrant, glowing Seventh and a poorly thought-out, run-of-the-mill Fifth - Dudamel is a born conductor but an unpractised interpreter. His style suggests a longing to return to the glory days of an era which ended with the deaths of Bernstein, Karajan and Solti. The sound is full-bodied and carefully groomed; there is no antiphonal division of the violins; repeats are in short supply. Yet who can entirely object when the playing is as glorious as much of this? The Fifth is bedevilled by a lack of a through pulse in the first movement development and coda, and otiose broadenings of the motto at the end. ...the Seventh... brings out the best in Dudamel's conducting; it's visceral energy, its generosity of spirit (and phrasing), its heart-warming nurturing of a belief that every note matters. The orchestra responds nobly to his demands. The finale is a dead ringer for Karajan's 1983 Berlin version, which is saying something. For these young musicians to come within hailing distance of so fabled an ensemble is an earnest of just how special they are.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2006

“there's no mistaking here that [Dudamel's] is a special talent, of the kind that can really make a difference. The ensemble precision of these performances is outstanding, with hyper-accurate woodwind chording...In phrase after phrase in all these Shakespeare-inspired works, the musical response is direct, ultra-focused, and where lyrical passion is called for, beautifully memorable. These players know what their profession is about.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2011 ***

“I was immediately gripped by the score's drama [in 'Hamlet'], as propounded by Dudamel and his orchestra...This performance never allows the tension to die down and it is not lacking in atmosphere, even if said atmosphere is more Russian than Danish (This is not Dudamel's fault, I must add)...When conflict breaks out between the Montagues and the Capulets, there is considerable weight” International Record Review, May 2011

“Yoking together Tchaikovsky's three orchestral works that were inspired by Shakespeare makes unarguable sense, but it's a surprisingly rare combination on disc...The climaxes have a full-blooded excitement” The Guardian, 17th March 2011 ***

“There's a spookily brooding Symphonic Fantasy based on The Tempest, while the company's youthful cast brings a suitably enthused spirit to the Fantasy Overture, based on Romeo and Juliet. But it's the Fantasy Overture based on Hamlet that most impresses here: the prince's tortured soul clearly offers fertile parallels with Tchaikovsky's own troubled temperament.” The Independent, 4th March 2011 ****

“Performances are fervent and in every sense dynamic, requiring some adjustment of the volume switch to cope with extremes of pianissimo and fortissimo...Strings are full-blooded and lively in attack. Brass is fiery and manages to stay radiant rather than raucous.” The Observer, 6th March 2011

“mature, vividly coloured performances...Much of the playing generates the virile exuberance for which the orchestra is famous. Dudamel harnesses this energy productively and to well-defined dramatic ends, tempering it with warm sensibility and commendable lack of indulgence in Tchaikovsky’s more sentimental moments.” The Telegraph, 6th March 2011 ****

“ Dudamel’s handling of this material is refreshingly mature. The composer’s succulent melodies are never oversentimentalised or phrased in distractingly fancy ways: you hear no conductor’s ego strutting. Nor is the drama so heated in temperature that the music becomes screamingly neurotic...Intelligence, that’s what leaps out from this disc” The Times, 11th March 2011 ****