Gustavo Dudamel has been lured back onto the stage for his second encore.
It’s Oct. 9, opening night of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s 2022–23 season. As the crowd spots the conductor, the volume inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall surges. He acknowledges the accolades, steps onto the podium, tilts his head back, lifts his arms, and hurls himself forward like a battering ram as the orchestra explodes into the first note of the Star Wars theme.
Dudamel’s curly mop of brown hair has a touch of gray now, but at 41, over a decade into his time as the L.A. Phil’s music and artistic director, it roils atop his head with as much vigor as when he conducted in his 20s. His patent leather shoes are a riot of activity.
When Dudamel is done, the audience leaps to its feet with the kind of reaction you’d expect to see at a Taylor Swift concert. Dudamel doesn’t take a bow—he never bows. Instead, he motions for the orchestra to stand up and share in the acclaim. He gives a big hug to Anne-Sophie Mutter, the virtuoso violinist and tonight’s featured soloist, and another to John Williams as the 90-year-old composer of and many other classic movies navigates his way toward center stage. Williams and Mutter keep waving Dudamel over to join them, but he refuses to make it a trio. Instead, he stays on the sidelines, turning toward them in profile, just one more adoring face in the crowd.
