Los Angeles music lovers greet the Dude

By Claude Peck

Thanks to a last-minute decision by Minnesota Public Radio, listeners statewide were able to tune in Thursday night as Gustavo Dudamel led the L.A. Philharmonic in a terrific concert of new and old music. It was Dudamel's official debut as the group's new music director inside Walt Disney Concert. He and the orchestra put on a quite a show.

With stars like Tom Hanks and Angelela Bassett in the audience and an overflow crowd watching from outside via a video feed, Dudamel, the 28-year-old mop-haired Venezuelan, tore into "City Noir," a surging, jazzy, syncopated world premiere symphony in three movements by John Adams.

At intermission, the radio hosts interviewed LA Phil. President Deborah Borda. She, of course, has Twin Cities connections, as she formerly led both the SPCO (1986-'89) and the Minnesota Orchestra (1990-'91), and she brought in Adams early on as music director at the SPCO.

Mahler's Symphony No. 1, with its klezmer passages and its reworking of the "Frere Jacques" tune, was the second-half work. Go here for Mark Swed's concert review in the L.A. Times, and here to stream last night's memorable concert.