KEY POINTS:
Gustavo Dudamel, at 26, is just about as hot as you get in the conducting line. It all started in 2004 when the young Venezuelan won the first Gustav Mahler Conductor's Competition. A career was born, engagements flowed in and, come 2009, he will take up the post of music director with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
The LA Times' Mark Swed has hailed Dudamel as "the real thing", invoking the Californian spirit of Brian Wilson by reporting that "fun, fun, fun" is what it is all about when Dudamel is on the podium.
Since 2000, Dudamel has been very much linked with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela (SBYO), the jewel in the crown of a far-sighted nation that puts immense faith and funding into a countrywide "sistema" which has a quarter-of-a-million children taking music studies.
The SBYO is an ambassador for its country and now Deutsche Grammophon is taking its music, via CD, to the world.
Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony is the orchestra's second release and Dudamel tells us that "recording Mahler's Fifth was a dream for us as it is a dream for every youth orchestra to play Mahler".
The result, recorded in Caracas last year, is a considerable achievement although there are testing moments. One can physically feel the tension of the young trumpeter launching into the opening fanfare; later on, in a generously paced Adagietto, the strings haven't quite the sheen to compete with the top professionals.
However, in the volatile moodswings of the score, youth can have its advantages.
Youngsters who might have been the perpetrators or victims of street violence bring a special sense of drama to this music.
Nevertheless perhaps sound by itself is not quite enough, despite booklet images of the tousle-haired conductor tossing his locks in a moment of passion or young musicians in singlets and baseball caps.
The press kit comes with two clips of the SBYO in performance with a camera roving over faces and fingers; emotions almost become tangible, concentration electrifying. The musical experience is not diminished but is, in fact, enriched.
While this splendid CD is much appreciated, it would be nice if a DVD was somewhere in the pipeline.
* Mahler, Symphony 5 (Deutsche Grammophon 477 6545)
