I’ve just been listening to an amazing concert that I’m really annoyed I didn’t go to. I’m talking about the appearance of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela under its 26 year old conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
Now before you go scooting on believing that I’m getting all high falootin’ talking about classical music, you really do need to listen to this concert.
As I say, I missed it, not managing to read about it until the following Sunday, thus missing out on the BBC’s Listen Again facility.
But fortunately on Wednesday the Prom was repeated on Afternoon on 3. So until next Wednesday afternoon you can hear it here. Fast forward about 1 hour 35 minutes to get to the start of the Prom.
And if the prospect of the Shostakovich fills you with dread, then skip another hour to 2 hours 35 minutes when a wonderful performance West Side Story’s symphonic dances is performed by this massive orchestra of 200 12 to 26 year olds.
And then stay with it for some wonderful South American music and three encores.
Just read what others are saying here. More than one person is demanding a CD/DVD release of this excellent concert!
The concert was also on BBC Four, which of course I missed too. But I’m certain that there’ll be some repeat performances over the coming weeks and months. The first chance to see the performance again is likely to be next Thursday’s “Youth Orchestras of the World” on BBC1 at 10.35pm. I’ll be tuning in.
Why does Venezuela have such wonderful young musicians? It’s all down to a system that lets any child in the country learn a classical instrument. Hundreds of thousands have participated and leading to a musical renaissance. There’s a programme all about it that you can download here.