i want to know what love is

If you want to know why there's been so much buzz about the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela and its 20-something conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, you can find the answer on YouTube. The site has a thoroughly intoxicating clip of the young musicians playing the "Mambo" in Bernstein's "Symphonic Dances From 'West Side Story' " at last summer's BBC Proms in London. Actually, they don't play it so much as they use it to tear up the Royal Albert Hall stage, summoning an energy and bravado alien to most orchestras. They dance, they grin from ear to ear, and they play like champs. It touches off a near-riot in the audience.


Boston.com
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts Dudamel and the orchestra are now officially the most exciting thing in classical music. They are a testament to "El Sistema," the amazing network of musical ensembles and education programs that target Venezuela's poor children. The Bolívar orchestra is its crown jewel and Dudamel its most famous alumnus, and they are in the midst of their first major American tour. It brings them to Symphony Hall on Wednesday, in a concert presented by New England Conservatory in association with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Celebrity Series of Boston.

Over the last year or so, the excitement surrounding the frizzy-haired Dudamel has blossomed into all-out frenzy. Following a string of highly acclaimed guest appearances, he was the surprise choice to succeed Esa-Pekka Salonen as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a post he takes up in 2009. He'll still be at the helm of the Bolívar orchestra, as well as Sweden's Gothenburg Symphony. Incredibly, he will be only 28 years old. Rarely has one musician's potential seemed so limitless.

I first spoke to Dudamel last year, before his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut at Tanglewood. At the time his wife translated his answers from Spanish because he wasn't comfortable with English. A few days ago I caught up with him again by phone from Los Angeles, the tour's first stop. He needed no translator this time. A tumult of activity surrounded him as he rushed from one commitment to the next - a "60 Minutes" crew had caught up with him there - but he sounded confident and improbably relaxed as he discussed the tour, his future, and the orchestra he calls his family.