February 15, 2007
Conductor Gustavo Dudamel, 26, is the product of a revolutionary musical training system Richard Morrison
If there’s one thing sure to make a critic as prickly as a hedgehog, it’s a record company proclaiming that a boy who’s hardly old enough to shave is the biggest thing to hit music since Beethoven. So you can imagine the reaction two years ago when high-and-mighty Deutsche Grammophon announced an exclusive contract with a 24-year-old conductor most critics had never heard of, let alone heard. What’s more, he came from Venezuela! “Here we go again,” was the general groan. “Another photogenic glamour-boy flogged to undiscerning punters, then cynically dumped.”
read the rest here
a southern gal in the north 
I read the article–I’m not so sure I would feel flattered to be compared with the young Simon Rattle. As I recall, the young Rattle wasn’t a particularly good conductor (I bought one Rattle recording that contained a rather flaccid performance of the Janacek “Sinfonietta” and never bought another). As with Seiji Ozawa who came to Boston earlyish in his carreer, Rattle had along and very public learning curve at the public’s expense.
Bless this new conductor, but I hope he’s the first Dudamel rather than the Second Rattle.
LikeLike