Debut in Sweden

Two orchestras, two performing styles, one conductor, one concert and the word together, written in all caps. On Monday, June 7, at 19:30 local time, Gustavo Dudamel united the "Simón Bolívar" Youth Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. This was not the Venezuelans’ first time playing together with another orchestra: last year they did it with the Radio France Orchestra, but indeed it was the first time that Dudamel paired together two of his featuring orchestras, the first ones opening their doors to him.

The show in Gothenburg was the first stop of the European Tour of the “Simón Bolívar” Youth Orchestra, affiliated with the National System of Youth and Children's Orchestras and Choirs of Venezuela -sponsored by the Vice-Presidency of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela-.

The expectation for this show, which the cultural authorities of Gothenburg considered historic, together with the concert on June 9, began months ago when the Venezuelans’ coming was announced. It grew three weeks ago when the last ticket sold out, and then some more with yesterday's performance of the Venezuela Brass Ensemble in the joy of the celebration of Sweden's National Day.

On Monday morning Gustavo Dudamel spoke in both Spanish and English to lead the rehearsal, but in the evening music was the mediator, and everyone’s ability to be in the music and for the music. The score tells the mythical story of a woman who dances to death to please the gods, so that they would send spring to the land.

It is a beautiful moment. To have these two wonderful orchestras together. Their connection is not only that I conduct both, but also their ability to bond with one another the way they do. I think this happens from their idea of music, from their deep comprehension of the art, and from their resembling spirits. ‘These are wonderful people!’ the Bolívar guys would say, and then the Gothenburg guys would say the same. Making music builds a direct connection among them”, Gustavo Dudamel said.

That very same day, Dudamel officially announced that he signed for two more years as a featuring conductor of the Gothenburg Orchestra.

The Concert

A concert for history

Gustavo Dudamel conducted the Gothenburg Orchestra on the first part of the concert with a piece that slightly touches de word “mischief”. It was "Midsommarvaka” (Midsummer Vigil), by the Swedish composer Hugo Alfven. Then music drew the colors of Margarita Island (in Venezuela) under the hardwood ceiling of the Gothenburg Concert Hall, with ”Margariteña”, by the Venezuelan composer Inocente Carreño, stealing a long-lasting ovation.

But there would be more Latin-American sounds in the house. When the clapping allowed, the “Simón Bolívar” Orchestra performed “Danzas del Ballet La Estancia” (Dances from ‘La Estancia’ Ballet), by the Argentine Alberto Ginastera, whose finale, the ”Malambo”, made the Swedish stand on their feet without much effort.

After the intermediate, the awaited moment: Venezuelan and Swedish musicians sat and played together the ”Rite of Spring”. After only one rehearsal, the then Swedish-Venezuelan orchestra played a piece with a rhythmic complexity hard to catch by the musicians. The work seduced the whole audience in an episode completely opposite to its premier in Paris almost 100 years ago, when the musicians had to duck physical and oral aggressions from the audience.

The members of the Swedish orchestra, like magicians performing hat tricks, took out more than 145 ribbons with the Swedish flag colors to place on the Venezuelan's shoulders. And they in return prized the Swedish musicians with the Venezuelan tri-colored medal carrying the 35 year slogan of El Sistema: “To Play and To Fight”.

The 1,246 spectators at the Gothenburg Concert Hall applauded the combined orchestra over more than 10 minutes. They obviously wanted more, and they got more. The audience, glad to be part of the orchestra, played what they could from their seats: they clapped and shook their shoulders to the tune of ”Tico Tico”, a piece by Zequinha de Abreu so contagious by its music that even those who will not move a finger would actually dance. Then 10 more minutes of ovation sealed the memory of the first time that the Venezuelan orchestra performed on Swedish ground.

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Dudamel United Two Great Orchestras: Gothenburg and Simón Bolívar 

An Inspiring Sistema

El Sistema keeps sowing

The “Rite of Spring” was the end of a day featuring the System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela. The afternoon held a symposium about the artistic and social outreach of this project, which has already been copied by other countries, and with many other nations dreaming of something similar. Cultural authorities from Sweden and from other countries attended the conference led by Eduardo Méndez, an executive chief at FESNOJIV, to hear him explain that nothing is impossible.

Méndez told the story of the beginning of El Sistema in Venezuela and also spoke about its outreach after 35 years of history. The attention in the hall maxed out as he inspired his audience. Then they heard the witness of the members of a replica of El Sistema in Scotland.