West Side Story Conductor Gustavo Dudamel on Making Leonard Bernstein’s Music His Own

Anyone who has seen Gustavo Dudamel’s signature interpretation of the mambo from West Side Story’s “Dance at the Gym” sequence knows the man understands how to whip an audience into a musical frenzy. If Leonard Bernstein wrote the piece to be lively, brash, and a little dangerous, Dudamel plays it as a life-or-death bacchanal, guiding his orchestra to literally dance the number out as he flails wildly from the podium. The BBC called his 2007 conduction of the material at the 2007 Proms, “the greatest Prom of all time.” The Venezuelan conductor is no stranger to international audiences. Appointed music… Read Full Article