Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, Gustavo Dudamel

“As usual, the forces wielded in this live recording from Caracas approach the gargantuan: they include 17 trumpets, 15 trombones and a mere 96 strings. And again the playing quality is exceptional. Brass shining like gold; velvet, purring double-basses; gambolling woodwinds; killer percussion; violinists with 20 fingers, never afraid whatever the speed.” The Times, 6th February 2009 ****

“The playing packs a passionate punch, the aching pangs of the first movement delivered with palpable anguish, the outbursts charged with hot-blooded fury. Dudamel’s pacing of the andante slow movement might tax any solo horn-player’s reservoir of breath, but the youngster allotted the part here takes it mellifluously in his stride.” The Telegraph, 18th February 2009

“Though Gustavo Dudamel’s achievements with his remarkable young Venezuelans may be one of the musical wonders of our time, their charisma seems to work far better live than on disc. The collection released last year was a wonderful memento of the Simón Bolívar’s performances of the same pieces in concert, but their earlier recording of Mahler and Beethoven symphonies with Dudamel had been much less convincing. Though this latest Tchaikovsky release has moments of huge excitement, it doesn’t begin to compete with the finest accounts of the Fifth Symphony already available. Predictably, perhaps, it’s the finale of the symphony that shows Dudamel and his orchestra at their best, when they generate tremendous intensity; but until then it moves in fits and starts. The orchestral fantasy Francesca da Rimini fares no better, with the slower music under-characterised and other sections too brassily assertive. Dudamel’s army of fans will get over it, of course, but he’s a more satisfying interpreter than he allows himself to be here.” The Guardian, 6th March 2009 ***

“A sinewy, uninhibited Tchaikovsky Fifth - you’d expect nothing less from this source. Dudamel and his young players feed on one another; the exchange of energy is extraordinary. As for the finale… the allegro vivace comes off the starting-blocks at such a blistering pace as to register a nanosecond of disbelief that such a tempo is even possible. But the real disbelief is still to come. To better this account of Francesca da Rimini you need to go back to Stokowski or Bernstein’s underrated Israel Philharmonic recording. As if the descent into Dante’s inferno isn’t intense enough - Dudamel’s pacing of this lengthy introduction is quite masterly - the whirlwind at its core glows white hot with astonishing virtuosity displayed from every department.” Gramophone Magazine, April 2009