Gustavo Dudamel Essentials

Gustavo Dudamel is as close to a Hollywood star as a conductor could possibly get. With a solid musical pedigree as the figurehead of Venezuela’s music education programme El Sistema, and a stage presence to rival Leonard Bernstein, Dudamel has spent his career thrilling his orchestral players almost as much as his devoted audiences—from Caracas to Los Angeles. There’s something undefinably electric about a Dudamel performance, and as he begins his tenure as music and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic (following, incidentally, in the footsteps of Bernstein) you can experience here a slice of Dudamel’s kaleidoscopic musical world. From gripping Ravel and bombastic Beethoven to the fizzing South American works he has championed and helped revive, these tracks are testament to this orchestral powerhouse.