Gustavo Dudamel Beethoven: Symphony

Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Orchestra bring their unique energy to one of the summits of the orchestral repertoire - Beethoven’s mighty Symphony No.3, the “Eroica”.

With this recording project, Gustavo Dudamel & Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela pay homage to two of our greatest inspirations: Beethoven and Bolivar. Two bold, passionate visionaries whose parallel lives straddled the transition from the Enlightenment to the revolutionary Romantic eras, who came of age in the shadow of Napoleon, and went on to dominate the cultural consciousness of their time. Bolivar led millions of South Americans to freedom and became the spiritual father of nations; Beethoven championed the emancipation of art from the sphere of the aristocracy and, in his symphonies, established the compositional and philosophical vocabulary for all music thereafter.

Although his catalog lists just four symphonies, Brahms wrote several other works that come close to that genre: his First Piano Concerto was indeed planned as a symphony, and the Second (which is in four movements) has been called a symphony with piano obbligato. Although the Second and Third Symphonies were introduced in Vienna, Brahms decided to give his Fourth Symphony an outof- town tryout.

Gustavo Dudamel's skillful conducting and dedication to music drew international attention while he was just in his twenties and continues to attract diverse audiences throughout the world. Dudamel began violin lessons at age 10 in Venezuela's El Sistema music program and then began studying conducting in 1995 with Rodolfo Saglimbeni. In 1999 he was named music director of the program's Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, studying with El Sistema's founder, José Antonio Abreu.

The prestigious Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel, and Deutsche Grammophon, the world’s leading classical music label, are set to extend their long history of making music together. They will now build on a relationship that has already produced benchmark recordings of works by Mahler and John Adams, among others, and seen orchestra and conductor play key roles in the visionary “DG Concerts” initiative, which allowed music-lovers rapid virtual access to live LA Phil concerts.