The Inaugural Concert Review

On Wednesday, March 22nd, I watched a DVD performance, Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic: The Inaugural Concert, which was performed on October 8th, 2009 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The performance consisted of instruments in the Woodwind family such as: flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons. The Brass family: horns, trumpets, trombones, and tubas. The Percussion family: timpani, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, and a bass drum. Finally, the String family consisted of: a harp, violins, violas, violoncellos, and double basses. Gustavo Dudamel conducted Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Minor “Titan”, which composed of four movements which were: (I) Langsam, schleppend. Immer sehr gemächlich, (II) Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell Recht gemächlich, (III)

The first movement, “Langsam, schleppend. Immer sehr gemächlich,” had a range of varying melodies and dynamics. This piece starts off with a seven-octave drone in the strings on A, while the violins use harmonics for the highest registers. This first part is a repeating pattern of gradually descending notes. It’s similar to the Jaws theme, where there is a two-note leitmotif. This two-note leitmotif is developed in the woodwind family which starts off the movement very eerie. The next part is nature themed. It is quickly interrupted by clarinets along with muted trumpets. After this, the horns are introduced with a slow and mellow melody which was played very soft, which I believe was pianissimo. The horns get interrupted by the trumpets playing a fanfare-like ceremonial tune. The trumpets started to