The Maestro Comes Home, Gustavo Dudamel Returns to Disney Hall for Beethoven
Now leading the New York Philharmonic, Dudamel comes back to the LA Phil in December for a Beethoven run with Rudolf Buchbinder.
The LA Phil opens its season tonight, October 1, with a gala led by Teddy Abrams, with the pianist Yuja Wang. The date much of the city has circled sits two months out, when Gustavo Dudamel walks back onto the stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Dudamel had led the orchestra as music and artistic director since 2009 before taking the same title at the New York Philharmonic. His December concerts are his first appearances with the LA Phil since that move.
The program is Simply Beethoven, a complete cycle of the piano concertos with Rudolf Buchbinder. On December 4, 5 and 6, Dudamel pairs the Eroica Symphony with Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in turn. From December 10 to 13 he conducts the Fifth Symphony and the Fourth Piano Concerto. Buchbinder closes the cycle with the Emperor Concerto under Xian Zhang, January 14 to 17.
“We are thrilled to reaffirm the enduring bond between Gustavo Dudamel, the LA Phil and our city by welcoming him back to Walt Disney Concert Hall,” said Kim Noltemy, the orchestra’s CEO. Dudamel kept it simpler. “It will always be a joy and a privilege for me to make music with my beloved LA Phil family, and to continue these artistic conversations that have grown and evolved over so many wonderful years.”
The season has new rhythms elsewhere. Esa-Pekka Salonen begins as the Judith and Thomas L. Beckman Creative Director and curates a season-long Rituals festival, and Dudamel returns again May 6 to 9 with a new commission from Zosha Di Castri.
