Fiesta

Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 In 2006, the 25-year-old Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel's star on the international scene is rising fast, with prestigious conducting assignments and this CD of two of Beethoven's most-popular and often-recorded symphonies. It's a bold calling card for a label that has outstanding ...	Mahler: Symphony No. 5 Gustavo Dudamel presents his highly anticipated second album on Deutsche Grammophon. Again with the forces of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, the disc features another symphonic masterpiece - Mahler's captivating Symphony No. 5. Gustavo Dudamel's debut album of...	60 Minutes - Gustavo The Great (February 17, 2008) Airdate: 02/17/08 Who's the world's most precocious conductor? It's got to be Gustavo Dudamel, that shaggy haired prodigy from Venezuela who has become classical music's newest rock star. Aside from the hair, the first thing you might notice about Dudamel is the joy, the exubera...	Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific (The New Broadway Cast) The landmark musical's first-ever Broadway revival! The curtain rang down on Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific in 1954 after five years of extraordinary acclaim and countless awards including nine Tonys and a Pulitzer. Based on James Michener's Pulitzer Prize winning book T...	Tocar y Luchar (To Play and To Fight) The winner of the audience award at the Miami International Film Festival, To Play and To Fight presents the captivating story of the Venezuelan Youth Orchestra System - an incredible network of hundreds of orchestras formed within most of Venezuelas towns and villages. Once a m...
Two Men With The Blues Two Men with the Blues is no more a jazz album than a blues album. It's neither jazz returning home, nor blues wandering out. What Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis have created is a compilation of jump-blues standards with arrangements that compliment both genres. While most of ...	Birthday Concert for Pope Benedict XVI [DVD Video] Filmed at the Vatican on April 16, 2007, this DVD reproduces the concert that formed the centerpiece of Pope Benedict XVI's 80th-birthday celebrations. Also included are the welcoming speeches and the Pope's words of thanks. The concert program, in part selected by the music-lovi...	Schoenberg Violin Concerto Op.36/Sibelius Violin Concerto Op.47 In another original pairing violinist Hilary Hahn brings together the familiar, highly commercial and long-awaited recording of the famous Sibelius Violin Concerto with the rarely performed Violin Concerto by Arnold Schoenberg. Hahn brings out the romantic qualities of Schoenberg...	Harps & Angels Randy Newman's first studio album of all new material in nearly a decade is, by turns, hilarious, poignant and scathingly satirical. Harps and Angels often has an easy going Crescent City feel, with Newman on piano fronting a small combo and revealing, as Rolling Stone put it aft...	Beethoven: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 4

Great Fun from Venezuela
This may not be the greatest music, but the orchestra sounds terrific. Most important, under the wunderkind Dudamel, the players convey a joyful sense of engagement and appropriately controlled abandon. A real winner!

Fabulous Music
Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela are in their element with this selection of Latin American music. Senemaya and the dances from Estancia are familiar but the remaining tracks (Leonard Bernstein excepted) were by composers entirely new to me. Sensemaya was based on a poem called Chant to Kill a Snake and was given an archaic feel by Silvestre Revueltas that sounds quite ominous and is magnificently performed by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. Margeritena by Inocente Carreno is a majestic piece based on Venezuelan popular songs, and while it may be European in his orchestration Carreno is magnificent in expressing his love of his homeland. I had the feeling that I was given a musical tour of Venezuela. Antonio Estevez's Mediodia en el Liano is a more reflective and elegiac work that describes the grasslands of Venezuela. Originally, this short work was part of a larger suite but the other movements were cut by the composer. Mediodia en el Liano is a very colorful piece that has the feel of awe inspired by the broad landscape. Danzon No. 2 by Arturo Marquez is a very popular work and is considered Mexico's second national anthem. The music begins quietly and slowly builds across the orchestra as the tempo switches to a dance rhythm. Fuca con Pajarillo by Aldemaro Romero is a tuneful work based on the Venezuelan dance pajarillo. In this piece the dance melody is worked into a fugue with contracting melodies. The dances from Estancia are played with true passion and certainly challenge the recordings I currently have of the music. Santa Cruz de Pacairigua by Evencio Castellanos is inspired by the festival of the same name that is characterized by parties with a great deal of drinking and dancing. The composer was a collector of Venezuelan folk music and this work show its influence. The final work, Mambo, by Leonard Bernstein is played with true abandon by the orchestra. This is a marvelous disc that was certainly one of discovery for me and I come away from it wanting to hear more. This is one that is not to be missed if you are interested in Gustavo Dudamel.

Just so exciting!
Well, we all know the review process is flawed--the one-star review is just heinous, but it will disappear. This CD is magical. I am as non-Latina as they come, but I can't play this (at work) without swaying/dancing in my seat. People stop at my office door and smile--it is that contagious. I agree with other reviewers: Dudamel is a buoyant talent, the real thing, and I for one am thrilled to be around to watch him mature and dazzle. I live in New York where I've seen him twice, but would fly to LA to see him at work again--kudos to them for hiring this extraordinary young man. Please buy this CD--so highly recommended. Absolutely brilliant.

The best conductor since Leonard Bernstein
The person who rated this CD as a 1 star, should be ashame of himself. Is the most absurd comment I'd ever heard. And I feel is my duty to report to the public that this opinion is absolutely WRONG. Gustavo Dudamel is simply the hottest thing to hit classical music since Leonard Bernstein. But in the world of music, why talk? Better to look, and listen. Obviously, this reviewer is in desperate need of learning what the best music is. Hands down, the best CD I own.

Truly a Master Piece of Latin American Classical Music
The first reviewer has absolutely NO idea what he is talking about and obviously does not know anything about music!!! Please IGNORE HIM and forgive him for his ignorance. The Simon Bolivar Orquestra in Dudamel's hands is without doubt, one of the most impressive works done in the world of classical music. Dudamel is a genius of the size of Mozart and we have the privilege of having him is our times. This CD has an immense value, not only for the magnificent performance of he orquestra and the way they transmit the essence of latin America through their music, but also because of the success of a UNIQUE music education program that takes place in Venezuela and that gives birth to the best musicians of the world. Having this CD is a privilege that will delight your ears and an open window to the heart of Latin America.