Gustavo Dudamel explodes out of his seat at the podium during a rehearsal at Los Angeles’s Walt Disney Concert Hall and stands on the tips of his toes, jabbing the air violently with his conductor’s baton, a look of ice pick–murderer concentration crossing his face. Arrayed in front of him, a massive choir of some 800 singers lifts its voices in an ebullient passage from Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Impatient with what he’s heard so far, yet intent on coaxing every last bit of romantic drama from the score, the young maestro grabs a nearby microphone to address the group. “We have a phrase in Venezuela: ‘You killed the tiger and now you’re afraid to take the skin,’” Dudamel tells them with loose cordiality. “This is happening here. You have to take the skin! Be more in the moment!”

古斯塔沃·杜达梅尔从座位上一跃而起，他踮起脚尖，手舞指挥棒，在空中猛烈地比划着，脸上的神情就像杀手面对猎物般专注，手里的指挥棒就像用作凶器的尖利冰锥。在洛杉矶迪斯尼音乐厅的指挥台前，八百多人组成的宏大乐团在他的执掌下高声齐奏马勒《第八交响曲》，激情澎湃，乐声如潮。但我们年轻的指挥家显然有些听不下去，他觉得乐团的演绎并不如想象中的完美，忍不住抓起了手边的话筒，开始向台下训话。“我们委内瑞拉有句话说得好：‘既然当初杀得了虎，现在怎么不敢剥虎皮了？’”杜达梅尔说，语气中透出性情中人的直率，“你们现在就是这种情况。必须把虎皮剥下来！要入戏一点！”

The tiger Dudamel is taming today—known as the “Symphony of a Thousand” because of the sheer number of performers it takes to stage—has the maestro behaving like the exacting tiger mom his musicians have come to admire. Dudamel’s interpretation of Mahler’s Eighth has been the most anticipated orchestral event of the season: a sold-out performance (scalpers got $850 for a pair of tickets) featuring singers from 16 local choruses and more than 250 musicians from the two orchestras he commands, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. As one of the largest-scale works in the classical concert repertoire and a singular fusion of song with symphony, Mahler’s Eighth is a fitting finale for what Dudamel refers to as his “crazy dream,” the Mahler Project. A series of concerts to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death, the project has Dudamel conducting all nine of the Austrian composer’s completed symphonies (as well as the opening movement of his unfinished 10th and “Songs of a Wayfarer”)—completely from memory. Having just finished a blockbuster run in Los Angeles, Dudamel and his orchestras depart this week for Caracas to perform the whole nine yards again.

 杜达梅尔现在驯的“虎”就是编制庞大、人称“千人交响曲”的马勒《第八交响曲》，正是这支曲子让杜达梅尔“性情大变”，成了严格苛刻、不近人情的“虎妈”。杜达梅尔对“马勒八”的演绎是本季交响界最受瞩目的宏伟盛事，门票早已售罄，票贩子手中的双人票已经卖到了850美元。此次演出阵容庞大，不仅包括杜达梅尔麾下的洛杉矶爱乐乐团和委内瑞拉西蒙·玻利瓦尔青年交响乐团的250多名音乐家，还从当地请来16个合唱团。作为编制最大的古典曲目之一，“马勒八”完美地融合了声乐和交响乐，创造出非凡的艺术效果。杜达梅尔说，这支曲子最适合用作“马勒计划”的终曲，这是他的一个“疯狂的梦”。所谓“马勒计划”就是为了纪念马勒逝世100周年而举办的一系列大型音乐会，届时杜达梅尔将亲自指挥乐团演奏这位奥地利作曲家的全部9首交响曲（以及未完成的《第十交响曲》第一乐章和声乐套曲《旅人之歌》）——所有曲目全凭记忆指挥。洛杉矶的演出盛会刚一结束，杜达梅尔和他的乐团就得在本周内奔赴加拉加斯，在委内瑞拉的观众面前再次演绎这9首曲子。

Meet the maestro called the savior of classical music. “The Dude,” as he’s come to be known, is widely hailed as “the rock-star conductor,” the classical world’s answer to Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson. The diminutive conductor is a towering figure in symphonic music, whose cultural influence belies his relatively young 31 years. With his undulating mane of corkscrew curls, ecstatic podium presence, and unabashedly modern interpretations of cherished orchestral works, Dudamel has unleashed a flood of new interest in classical music, bridging the generation gap between pension-age high-culture appreciators and younger listeners.

 下面一起来见识一下我们的男主人公——集万千赞誉于一身的指挥家杜达梅尔。他被人称为古典音乐的救赎者、颇具摇滚风格的指挥家、古典界的猫王和迈克尔·杰克逊，出道之初便有“神奇小子”之名；虽然个子不高，却是交响界的巨人，年仅31岁就有举世瞩目的文化影响力。他那一头波浪起伏的浓密卷发，沉醉于指挥之中的癫狂状态，对交响“神曲”大胆无畏的全新阐释，吸引了一批又一批年轻人关注古典音乐，使得这个原本只属于老龄、小众群体的高雅艺术形式重新焕发出蓬勃的生机。

The L.A. Phil chased Dudamel “around the world” to nab him., Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times-Polaris

 洛杉矶爱乐“追遍天涯海角”才把杜达梅尔“追到手”，图片来源：Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times-Polaris

And the show is just beginning. “The Mahler Project is immense,” says Deborah Borda, president and chief executive of the L.A. Phil. “When we planned it, I don’t think the two of us completely took in how big it would turn out to be.” It is the kind of bar-raising command performance that audiences have come to expect from the Venezuelan wunderkind—a musician who, whether taking on a Sibelius violin concerto or a Strauss symphony, makes a policy of raising the roof whenever he performs.

 好戏才刚刚开始。“‘马勒计划’非常庞大，”洛杉矶爱乐的团长和执行总监黛博拉·博尔达说，“策划的时候，我们两个可能都没想到这个计划能做多大。”人们争先恐后地来听演唱会就是为了一睹来自委内瑞拉的“音乐精灵”如“神灵附体”般的魔力。在这位指挥神童的演绎下，无论是西贝柳斯的小提琴协奏曲还是斯特劳斯的交响曲，都使聆赏者陷入如摄魂版的迷醉。

The grueling project also underscores Dudamel’s commitment to El Sistema—“The System”—Venezuela’s tough-love musical-outreach program for youth that made the conductor what he is and still counts him as its most forward face. “An orchestra is a model for an ideal global society—a symbol,” he says in his heavily accented English. “You have to create harmony. Everyone has to listen to each other, this large, complex group of people with different personalities that has to communicate. You have to have discipline. This is where The System works! The point is not to build better musicians. It’s to build better citizens, to see children building their lives from music.”

 在这项雄心勃勃的计划中，杜达梅尔还将大力推广“音乐救助体系”——通过音乐教育拯救贫困阶层的孩子。正是委内瑞拉的音乐救助体系造就了杜达梅尔，将这个神童从青葱小苗栽培成了苍天大树。“交响乐团是理想社会的典范，”杜达梅尔操着地方口音很重的英语说道，“你必须创造和谐的氛围，让每个人在这个庞大、复杂的群体中学会聆听，学会与他人交流。你必须制定纪律让每个人遵守。音乐救助体系也是如此，其目的是为了培养更优秀的音乐家和更好的公民，让孩子们用音乐造就自己的生活。”

Born to a salsa-trombone-playing father and a vocal-coach mother, Dudamel grew up in a loving but disadvantaged household. He famously enrolled in El Sistema (full name in translation: the National System of Youth and Children’s Orchestras of Venezuela) at the age of 5. His talent as a violin prodigy was spotted early on, and soon he was receiving tutelage from The System’s founder, José Antonio Abreu, who over the last 37 years has reshaped the lives of hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged Venezuelan youths with his music-education program. By age 18, Dudamel had assumed the role of musical director and conductor of the Simón Bolívar orchestra, El Sistema’s house ensemble.

 杜达梅尔出生在一个幸福却贫困的家庭，父亲是萨尔萨舞曲的长号手，母亲是声乐教练。5岁时他就进了“音乐救助体系”（全称委内瑞拉国家青少年交响乐团体系）——一个历时37年，拯救过无数委内瑞拉贫困儿童的音乐教育项目。他在拉小提琴上的天赋很早就显现出来，不久后就成了项目创始人若泽·安东尼奥·阿布鲁的门生。18岁时，杜达梅尔当上“音乐救助体系”的“嫡系”乐团——西蒙·玻利瓦尔青年交响乐团的音乐总监和指挥。

“People say, ‘He’s very young!’” Dudamel says. “The image of a conductor is with white hair, 50, 60 years old. But people must remember: I started to conduct when I was 12 years old.”

 “人们看到我时总会说我太年轻了，”杜达梅尔说，“因为一般指挥家都是五、六十岁、白发苍苍的老人，但是他们没有想过，我从12岁起就开始当指挥了。”

Soon the conductor’s aggressively modernist outlook, his exacting vision as an orchestra leader, and his galvanizing pasión with the baton were coaxing reluctant audiences in London, Paris, and New York to give standing ovations of “Bravo, Gustavo!” Critics, meanwhile, began to view the Dude as the charismatic prodigy who could resuscitate the art form (perhaps inevitably, he has also been written off by some critics as “overhyped”). In 2004, the maestro won the first Gustav Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg, Germany, and acclaimed conductor Simon Rattle was hailing him as “the most astonishingly gifted conductor I have ever come across.”

 刚出道不久，杜达梅尔就以其张扬不羁的外表、精益求精的艺术态度和激情澎湃的指挥风格征服了伦敦、巴黎、纽约的无数观众，让他们惊呼“妙不可言”，批评家们开始把这位魅力四射的神童看做古典音乐的救赎者（当然，也有人批评他“兴奋过度”）。2004年，杜达梅尔在德国班贝格举办的马勒国际指挥大赛上一举夺魁，著名指挥家西蒙·拉特尔更是盛赞他为自己见过的“最有天赋的指挥家”。

The L.A. Phil’s Borda recalls chasing Dudamel “around the world” to secure his commitment as the orchestra’s music director. After visiting Caracas, Borda in 2007 maneuvered to help found Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA), which provides free instruments and intensive music and academic training to students from several of L.A.’s most underprivileged neighborhoods. “I remember getting on the plane thinking, ‘I don’t know that I’ll be able to bring Gustavo to Los Angeles,’” Borda says. “‘But I must bring El Sistema back to our city and country.’” The move not only established the first El Sistema program outside Venezuela, it lured Dudamel to the City of Angels, where he took over from Esa-Pekka Salonen as the L.A. Philharmonic’s conductor and musical director in 2009. El Sistema affiliates have since cropped up in American cities such as Chicago, New York, and Baltimore, and as far away as South Korea, Greece, Norway, Denmark, and Scotland.

 博尔达向记者讲述了洛杉矶爱乐为了杜达梅尔“追遍天涯海角”的往事。2007年，博尔达来到加拉加斯，向杜达梅尔承诺帮他建立洛杉矶青年交响乐团，为洛杉矶最底层民众家的孩子提供免费的乐器和高强度的音乐、文化训练。“我记得当时自己上飞机的时候就在想，‘也不知道这次能不能把杜达梅尔请到洛杉矶来，’”博尔达说，“‘不过不管怎么说一定要把音乐救助体系引进洛杉矶，引进全美国。’”结果此举不仅让音乐救助体系在委内瑞拉以外的地方扎根，还把杜达梅尔引到了这座“天使之城”。2009年，杜达梅尔接替艾萨-佩卡·萨洛宁成为洛杉矶爱乐的指挥和音乐总监。此后，音乐救助体系在各地如雨后春笋般涌现，不仅扎根于芝加哥、纽约、巴尔的摩，还开到了大洋彼岸的韩国、瑞士、挪威、丹麦和苏格兰。

At a recent YOLA rehearsal inside the swooping architectural confines of the Frank Gehry–designed Disney Hall, Dudamel’s commitment to his young charges was on vivid display. Guiding an ensemble of 40 kids through a performance of Brahms’s Hungarian Dance No. 5, the conductor was by turns goofy and cajoling. He was also stern, leaving no doubt about his expectations. After the orchestra performed one none-too-satisfactory passage, Dudamel said: “The first time was perfect. The second time was bad. The third time was worse. And the last time was horrible. Sorry, Brahms!”

 为了回报音乐救助体系当年对自己的栽培之恩，杜达梅尔一直热心于培养年轻一代音乐家。最近，洛杉矶青年交响乐团在弗兰克·盖里设计的环形音乐圣殿——迪斯尼音乐厅举行了彩排，杜达梅尔亲自指挥40个孩子演奏勃拉姆斯的第5号《匈牙利舞曲》。这位指挥家时而循循善诱，时而坦率直白，不过总的来说他严格苛刻，不留情面，定下的标准一定要做到。在一段不甚完美的演奏之后，杜达梅尔毫不客气地说：“第一遍不赖，第二遍不行，第三遍很差，第四遍简直不堪入耳。天哪，我真为勃拉姆斯感到抱歉！”

Dudamel’s professional habit of holding youth-orchestra members to the high standards he sets for his adult players—even at the risk of riding them—is textbook El Sistema, says Gretchen Nielsen, director of education activities at the L.A. Phil. “There’s a thing they do in Venezuela: they throw out this goal that’s way too lofty for any kid to attain,” she explains. “But it makes them want to rise to that. And it sets up this deep trust. They think about Gustavo as a friend and this great artist. They want to fulfill both of those contracts.”

 杜达梅尔一贯以职业的水准要求年轻的演奏者，尽管这样的标准有时对他们来说过于严苛。据洛杉矶爱乐主管教育活动的格雷琴·尼尔森说，这种“高标准，严要求”的训练风格正是音乐救助体系的金科玉律。“他们委内瑞拉人有个习惯，喜欢给孩子设立看似高不可及的目标，”她解释道，“但这样做也是对孩子能力的充分信任，能激起他们的挑战欲。孩子们把古斯塔沃看做良师益友。既对他保有尊崇，又和他打成一片。”

Helena Wessman, the managing and artistic director of the Göteborg Symphony, where Dudamel was conductor for five seasons, can attest to the positive impact his nucleos—as teaching centers for El Sistema are known—have had across Sweden. “This El Sistema thing: Gustavo is the icon, the ambassador of it,” she says. “I think within 10 years it will be a strong global movement. What Gustavo is doing is creating big waves of energy throughout the world.”

 哥德堡交响乐团的执行、艺术总监海伦娜·维斯曼亦对此深有体会，杜达梅尔曾在她的乐团担任五个季度的指挥，音乐救助体系也在瑞典遍地开花。“杜达梅尔是体系的灵魂与代言人，”她说，“依我看，不出十年这个体系就会走遍全球，古斯塔沃正把他的青春活力带向世界各地。”

Kevin Sullivan / Orange County Register-ZUMA

 图片来源：Kevin Sullivan / Orange County Register-ZUMA

To hear it from Dudamel, the endgame of his international acclaim is to provide inspiration. “Fame has two sides for me,” he says. “One is when fame is an inspiration for other people. The other is when fame is an inspiration for you. What that means? In the second case, it becomes an ego thing. ‘I’m the best and everybody knows me.’ In the first, you see the children calling you, and your image is an inspiration for them to accomplish things. For me, that’s amazing. You feel like things are going the right way.”

 对杜达梅尔来说，名誉是前进的动力。“名誉对我来说有两方面的影响，”他说，“一是激励别人，二是激励自己。怎么说呢？从第二个方面讲，名誉构成了一种自尊，你会觉得，‘我是最棒的，没有人不知道我。’从第一个方面讲，你会感觉到孩子们需要你，他们把你看做偶像来鞭策自己。这对我来说很神奇，感觉就像所有的事情都发展得很顺利。”

Dudamel’s efforts to conjoin his past with his future legacy were thrown into stark relief on a recent afternoon at Heart of Los Angeles, a nonprofit after-school program for underprivileged kids in L.A.’s gritty Rampart district, which houses one of the city’s two El Sistema nucleos. Some 20 members of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra were giving tutorials on cello and violin to the appreciative and surprisingly well-behaved elementary students. “When we see the children play, it’s like going back in time to watch ourselves learning how to play,” says Manuel Jurado, 20, of the Bolívar Symphony. The young Venezuelans made no secret of how they revere the Dude as something between a national hero and an inspirational icon. “He’s kind of a god for us,” says Bolívar Symphony assistant conductor Jesús Parra, 17. “He’s opened the doors for many conductors to believe in what they do. Out of thousands of children, Gustavo is the main example of what El Sistema can create.”

从贫民家庭走出的杜达梅尔希望利用自己目前的社会地位帮助更多的贫困儿童。不久前的一天午后，他率领玻利瓦尔交响乐团的20名“亲兵”来到音乐救助体系在洛杉矶兰帕特区设立的两个教育中心指导当地的贫困儿童演奏大提琴和小提琴，孩子们的表现令人吃惊。“看着孩子们演奏，仿佛看到了当年的自己，”20岁的团员曼纽尔·尤拉多说。这些年轻的委内瑞拉人丝毫不掩饰自己对杜达梅尔的崇拜，他们把他看做民族英雄和励志偶像。“他对我们来说就像神一样，”17岁的乐团助理指挥赫苏斯·帕拉说，“他造就了许许多多的年轻指挥，让他们相信自己的才能。古斯塔沃是音乐救助体系拯救的成千上万名街头少年之一，充分说明了这个慈善体系所发挥的惊人作用。”

Lost on no one is the fact that this savior of classical music comes from the so-called Third World—and doesn’t resemble any of the elderly maestros who’ve been the face of European orchestral music for centuries.

几个世纪以来，统领交响乐坛的都是欧洲国家的那些一本正经的老年音乐家，杜达梅尔的出现颠覆了人们的传统偏见。这位古典音乐的救赎者来自所谓的“第三世界”，给暮气沉沉的交响乐坛带来了全新的气象。

For his part, Dudamel is happy to function as an antidote to elitism and bridge the cultural divide. “I’m coming from a Latin culture where everything is so energetic,” he says. “I cannot avoid that. It’s in my blood.”

杜达梅尔自己倒乐于做草根阶级的代言，他希望通过音乐沟通不同的文化。 “我从小生活在拉美的文化环境中，那里的一切都充满了活力，”他说，“这种文化影响渗透到了我的血液里，根深蒂固。”

http://article.yeeyan.org/view/58460/250156