Like most people, I was first introduced and swept up by the phenomenon that is Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar YO back in August of 2007. I remember everyone suddenly started talking about them and videos of their performance at the BBC Proms (specifically, their performance of Shosti 10, Second Movement and Bernstein's Mambo) spreading like wildfire on my Facebook Newsfeed. It wasn't hard to see why the orchestra became so popular so quickly. Resembling an army of young musicians (at least 150 strong), they played with a combination of precision, raw emotions, and ebullient enthusiasm. So imagine my excitement then when I heard their new album
After listening through the whole recording, including the Revueltas, it felt as if I listened to two different orchestras perform. For the Stravinsky, I was disappointed. Dudamel said that "rhythm is in [their] blood", and there is no argument about that. The orchestra handles the rhythms in the three trickiest sections of the piece (Danse de la Terre, Glorification de l'Élue, and Danse Sacrale) with incredibly tight ensemble; it is as if they are all mentally connected with one another and knew exactly when and how to attack the music. However, as the cliché goes, their greatest strength is also their great weakness. The majority of this piece is characterized by rhythmic tension and vulgarity, representing the primal contortions and snapping of the limbs and neck during dance. The SBYO are too clean and loses the rhythmic stresses and releases that defines the piece. While the rhythms should not be difficult for the musician to play, it should sound difficult. Even during one of the slowest and simpler moments of the piece, such as in the Rondes Printanières, there is still a driving, rhythmic force in the music.
In this moment in the recording, their playing becomes vertical at the sacrifice of the horizontal. The orchestra seems to place so much attention on starting the notes together that they come in on the back end of the beats, which causes the music loses all sense of forward motion.
The other aspect of The Rite of Spring that appeals to today's audiences is the score's evocative imagery and colors, which Stravinsky achieves through individual solos and orchestrally. By having certain instruments to play solos beyond their intended range, a unique and exotic color is attained. The soloists of SBYO hold their own very well in this respect, especially the bassoonist in the opening L'Adoration de la Terre and the violas in La Sacrifice. It is as a collective whole that Dudamel's direction falls short. A picture of a gorgeous natural landscape is only good if the photographer knows how to capture the magic through the lens. The opening of La Sacrifice should be mysterious and the trumpet chorale should be holy during the Action Rituelle des Ancêtres. The orchestra's playing here is technically perfect, but the music is missing something meaningful behind the perfection. This adherence to perfection is especially disadvantageous during moments when the orchestra should be striving for the guttural effect. An example is in this moment in the brasses during the Rondes Printanières.
This collective groan in the brasses and woodwinds on the fifth beat should be overwhelming, like a century-old tree being felled. Ideally, the instruments would achieve this by sliding down from the top note. While this is not physically possible for some of the instruments, this was Stravinsky's intention, as noted by the glissando in the trombones. Instead, the SBYO at this moment opts to play these two eighth notes more or less straight, with the glissando barely heard.
The SBYO sounds completely different for the companion piece on this album. The Revueltas is far more successful; their joy for this music, with its alluring Latin rhythms and colors, completely shines through in this reading. The music feels much freer than the Stravinsky, as if they were not worried about being exactly correct all the time. I enjoyed the Noche de Yucatan in particular, its voluptuous nature well handled in the hands of SBYO's impassioned string section. Noche de Jaranas sparkles with its instrumentation and scoring, the rhythms inviting you to dance.
For the Stravinsky, I would recommend the recording made by Valery Gergiev with the Kirov Theater Orchestra. It is still the best recording I've heard of the Rite of Spring. Gergiev is daring and not afraid to push the boundaries of the score. This devotion obviously rubbed off on the orchestra too, who were willing to turn the music into noise. The sound engineering is great in this recording, with the range from the low bass drum to the high piccolo crystal clear and very well balanced.
In this moment in the recording, their playing becomes vertical at the sacrifice of the horizontal. The orchestra seems to place so much attention on starting the notes together that they come in on the back end of the beats, which causes the music loses all sense of forward motion.
The other aspect of The Rite of Spring that appeals to today's audiences is the score's evocative imagery and colors, which Stravinsky achieves through individual solos and orchestrally. By having certain instruments to play solos beyond their intended range, a unique and exotic color is attained. The soloists of SBYO hold their own very well in this respect, especially the bassoonist in the opening L'Adoration de la Terre and the violas in La Sacrifice. It is as a collective whole that Dudamel's direction falls short. A picture of a gorgeous natural landscape is only good if the photographer knows how to capture the magic through the lens. The opening of La Sacrifice should be mysterious and the trumpet chorale should be holy during the Action Rituelle des Ancêtres. The orchestra's playing here is technically perfect, but the music is missing something meaningful behind the perfection. This adherence to perfection is especially disadvantageous during moments when the orchestra should be striving for the guttural effect. An example is in this moment in the brasses during the Rondes Printanières.
This collective groan in the brasses and woodwinds on the fifth beat should be overwhelming, like a century-old tree being felled. Ideally, the instruments would achieve this by sliding down from the top note. While this is not physically possible for some of the instruments, this was Stravinsky's intention, as noted by the glissando in the trombones. Instead, the SBYO at this moment opts to play these two eighth notes more or less straight, with the glissando barely heard.
The SBYO sounds completely different for the companion piece on this album. The Revueltas is far more successful; their joy for this music, with its alluring Latin rhythms and colors, completely shines through in this reading. The music feels much freer than the Stravinsky, as if they were not worried about being exactly correct all the time. I enjoyed the Noche de Yucatan in particular, its voluptuous nature well handled in the hands of SBYO's impassioned string section. Noche de Jaranas sparkles with its instrumentation and scoring, the rhythms inviting you to dance.
I would like to end with a SBYO clip I love. It is similar to their BBC Proms performance of the Mambo, but better. Ridiculously fun, incredibly infectious.
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