For our last night in Berlin we went back to the Philharmonie Hall to see Gustavo Dudamel and his Simon Bolivar Orchestra. Ok, I know my last post was really sappy because the Berlin Philharmonic performed my all time favorite piece, but this performance was just as inspiring and beautiful so forgive me for the continuous sappiness. After I discovered Chopin's Piano Concerto, my mom showed me a 60 minutes interview with the new conductor of the LA Philharmonic (Gustavo Dudamel). I believe I was in 8th grade at the time and watching his passion and intensity immediately made me fall in love with the art of conducting. Also in the interview he spoke about the Simon Bolivar which he was a member of himself growing up. My mom and I were fascinated by the program.
Seeing Dudamel conduct Petrushka and the Rite of Spring in person was jaw dropping. They are regarded as two of the hardest pieces to conduct and he made it look easy. I've never seen someone cue as perfectly as him and the scary part was that he did it all from memory. It was almost of if he became the music. The orchestra responded to his energy with vigor and it really showed through these two ballets.
The first encore they performed was the finale of the Firebird Suite which happened to be the final piece I ever performed in the Tacoma Youth Symphony. So all of my previous emotions from that concert flooded back and I started crying (again). It was so incredible to watch my favorite conductor of all time conduct a piece that is so close to my heart.
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