Dudamel brings the Disney Hall audience to its feet

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Gustavo Dudamel, sporting a big smile, took the stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall this evening to thunderous applause from the audience.

The Venezuelan conductor bowed to the audience but made no remarks at the start of this, his first concert at the hall as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Dudamel launched immediately into John Adams’ ‘City Noir,’ a three-movement symphonic work that was commissioned by the Phil for tonight’s event.

Clocking in at about 35 minutes, ‘City Noir’ is a complex work that moves from jazz to lush orchestral sounds and back again. The piece features solos for saxophone, trombone and viola.

‘City Noir’ climaxed in a torrent of percussive beats that brought the house to its feet. Dudamel embraced Adams, and they both took several bows during the ovation.

Tonight’s concert is a formal affair with considerable star wattage. Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, sat next to Adams.

The concert also marks the first time that the Music Center has hosted a live outdoor simulcast on its plaza. The free simulcast featured a large plasma screen on the Hope Street side of the plaza along with several smaller screens scattered around the space and in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

According to the Music Center, about 1,500 people were at the simulcast. The Music Center had invited 3,000 through an online lottery.

‘We couldn’t afford to get tickets to Disney Hall so this was the next best thing,’ said Tracy Green of Malibu, who attended with three friends.

Dudamel was set to return to the stage to conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 after a 20-minute intermission.

-- David Ng