Battle of batons

Last month, New York’s public radio station WNYC hosted what it billed as a Los Angeles-versus-New York conductor “smackdown.”

On one side, a controversial British music critic went to bat for Gustavo Dudamel, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s effervescent 28-year-old music director. On the other, the producer of the New York Philharmonic’s radio broadcasts defended her orchestra’s measured, conscientious 42-year-old music director, Alan Gilbert.

Norman Lebrecht praised Dudamel for driving orchestras into a kind of ferocity, in contrast with the “dull” Gilbert. Noting Gilbert’s previous gig heading the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic for eight years, Lebrecht opined, “It was a third-rate orchestra when he started and it was a third-rate orchestra when he left.”

Gilbert’s champion, Limor Tomer, countered by dismissing Dudamel’s opening-night conducting of Mahler’s First Symphony as a collection of bad habits. The New York Philharmonic’s playing was pristine on its opening night beneath Gilbert’s baton, she said. Tomer even took a shot at the curly-headed Venezuelan’s unruly mane. “The hair thing,” she sniffed, “will only take you so far.”

Much of the debate was entertainingly half-baked. No one on it, including host John Schaefer, had actually witnessed Dudamel live in Los Angeles. Nonetheless, it was emblematic of the irresistible temptation many in the media and blogosphere have to pit Gilbert, music director of America’s oldest symphony orchestra, against Dudamel, leader of the ensemble many critics now regard as the model for the 21st century. Both men debuted in their new posts this fall.

Ironically, such debates overlook the point that both orchestras have much more in common today than the last time a version of this cross-country musical matchup occurred: 30 years ago when the New York Philharmonic hired Zubin Mehta away from L.A. In fact, the spiritual godfather of both new conductors may be Esa-Pekka Salonen, who has influenced and empowered Dudamel and Gilbert to follow the groundbreaking path he cut during his just-ended 17-year directorship of the L.A. Philharmonic.

The rivalry, such as it is, is not so much between the conductors themselves -- Dudamel and Gilbert are said to be friends (at least for now) -- as yet another coast-versus-coast cultural skirmish. Dudamel has been getting the lion’s share of attention. New Yorkers are envious. Angelenos, losing out in baseball to those Yankees, are glad for something to gloat about.

In our dugout, then, is a dazzling Venezuelan who attracts a large and diverse new audience. He has the potential to reshape the cultural landscape of Los Angeles through his advocacy of music education and obvious connection to Southern California’s Spanish-speaking millions. He is a delight to watch and fabulously photogenic. Musicians are maybe even more mesmerized by him than are audiences. He is already one of the conductors most in demand anywhere.

Gilbert, a native New Yorker, can boast none of these traits or accomplishments. He is well-enough liked. He brings a relatively youthful zest to America’s oldest orchestra by succeeding such senior-citizen conductors as Kurt Masur and Lorin Maazel. He is musically responsible and doesn’t take the fearless interpretive risks Dudamel sometimes does. If Gray’s Papaya ever decides to serve an Alan Gilbert dog to match Pink’s Dudamel dog in L.A., the Upper West Side hot dog stand is not likely to add jalapeno -- nor pile on junk food. Indeed, for Gilbert the freshness in the music is found in bringing out the natural ingredients with minimum fuss.

Each conductor is in the right place. Dudamel needs time to grow and mature away from the glare of New York’s music establishment. Gilbert doesn’t have the glitz for L.A. Why not, instead, just say all this media interest in American orchestras is great for classical music? That, so far, has been the brunt of reasoned commentary. But who’s kidding whom? Thanks to PBS, television audiences were able to watch both orchestras’ opening-night galas. Dudamel easily won the personality contest. In the Arizona Republic, Richard Nilsen wrote that “while Dudamel and his orchestra showed why classical music matters, Gilbert and his showed why audiences are dwindling.”

What is really going on in New York, however, is not so much L.A. envy as L.A. influence. The Gilbert changes that critics in New York are cheering come straight out of the Salonen playbook. In L.A., Salonen built a uniquely flexible orchestra. He created an audience for new work and turned the new music series, the Green Umbrella, into a major audience draw. He programmed with a rare intelligence, placing classics and contemporary works in meaningful context.

These are all steps that Gilbert, whom Salonen repeatedly invited to guest conduct in L.A. in recent years, has now initiated in New York. One of his first orders of business was to appoint Salonen’s closest friend, Magnus Lindberg, as composer in residence. Gilbert has also begun a new music series in the Green Umbrella mold. As L.A. did several years ago, the New York Philharmonic will have a Stravinsky festival (though it will be conducted by Valery Gergiev). Dudamel, though, is in the lucky position to build on Salonen’s foundation. While the New Yorkers commissioned two new works for Gilbert’s first season, the Angelenos are celebrating Dudamel’s with nine. The Disney Hall festivals are far-reaching, concentrating on West Coast and Latin American music, and include little tried and true. Dudamel has invited John Adams, America’s most lauded living composer, to be his orchestra’s creative chair.

Gilbert thus has the harder job. He must change a more traditional culture, which is going to take time. He was not, as Dudamel was in L.A., the first choice. Players admitted to the New York Times that they preferred the distinguished 68-year-old Italian, Riccardo Muti, who chose Chicago instead. Building new audiences and staying in the limelight will be a challenge for the thoughtful but cautious Gilbert. Last month, he took his orchestra to Vietnam for its first visit, and the New York media barely noticed.

Dudamel, on the other hand, is a paparazzi-magnet anywhere he goes. That includes New York.

In the spring, Dudamel will bring the Los Angeles Philharmonic to perform at Lincoln Center. Human nature being what it is, in some quarters of Los Angeles’ music establishment, it’s already being called the “eat-your-heart-out tour.”

--

mark.swed@latimes.com

--

BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX

Of West and East

GUSTAVO DUDAMEL

Music director,

Los Angeles Philharmonic, since October

“I need music, like air, like water, like food. . . . When I’m conducting, I like to give every part of my energy. Even if people say it’s too much. It’s the way that my soul, that my body, is expressing what I want to.”

Age: 28

Born: Barquisimeto, Venezuela

Family: Married to ballet dancer and journalist Eloisa Maturen

Education: Jacinto Lara Conservatory, Latin-American Violin Academy, El Sistema

Also: Music director, Gothenburg Symphony, 2007-present; music director, Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, 1999-present

Plays: Violin

Musical circle: Simon Rattle, Daniel Barenboim, Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu

Recent recording: “Mahler: Symphony No. 1 From the Inaugural Concert” with Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (available on iTunes) Deutsche Grammophon

ALAN GILBERT

Music director,

New York Philharmonic, since September

“I consider a conductor to be a vessel for channeling the music, for letting the music speak for itself, but that is impossible unless you fully infuse the performance with your own point of view.”

Age: 42

Born: New York City

Family: Married to cellist Kajsa William-Olsson; children: Esra Gilbert, 4, and Noemi Gilbert, 5.

Education: Harvard University, the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School

Also: Chief conductor, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic (2000-08); first music director of Santa Fe Opera (2003-06); principal guest conductor, Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra (NDRSO) since 2004; conductor laureate of Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra

Plays: Violin, viola

Musical circle: Frank Peter Zimmermann, Magnus Lindberg, Daniel Harding and Ara Guzelimian

Recent recording: Mahler’s Symphony No. 9 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra