Wagner - Dudamel Gustavo Dudamel

Mediocre Wagner

Orquesta Simón Bolívar isn’t the Vienna Philharmonic, certainly, but also about 2 dozen other orchestras at minimum. There is lacking weight in the sound, so crescendos and diminuendos, for example, are wan and unconvincing. Dudamel takes a middle of the road path throughout, so even conviction in the interpretation is lacking. This is easily one of the worst recordings Dudamel and the Bolívar band have produced. It should be withdrawn from the catalog at once, and replaced at a later time performed by Dudamel’s other band, the Los Angeles Philharmonic. With its recent additions of a sterling principal trumpet in Thomas Hooten, and magnificent principal french horn in Andrew Bain, the brass are now fully Wagner equipped, and the strings and winds have the polished sheen any great orchestra must have. Wagner is no afternoon outing for any orchestra, but it almost sounds like one here. Too bad, since I greatly admire both orchestra and its conductor, and they deserve to better represented than on this release.

The Rhine has moved to Venezuela

Dudamel doesn’t leave a stamp on music. He just brings vigor and passion, and it’s all here.

The horns in particular have a full Wagnerian richness that is remarkable from an organization until recently known as a youth orchestra.