The LA Phil returns to the Festival with their superstar conductor Gustavo Dudamel after their 2019 Festival performance triumphantly filled out Tynecastle Stadium. Both a classical and pop-culture phenomenon, Dudamel was the first classical artist to perform in the Super Bowl half-time show. With the orchestra itself being described as ‘the most important orchestra in America’ by the New York Times, together with Dudamel they make an unstoppable, Grammy Award-winning partnership. 

‘No man on earth can love the country as I do’, declared Ludwig van Beethoven. And he put his love into music in his joyous ‘Pastoral’ Symphony. His celebration of nature features evocations of birdsong, a babbling brook and a timpani thunderstorm, and closes with a radiant hymn of thanksgiving.  

Thomas Adès’s Inferno is very different: an alternately terrifying and comic journey through Hell, as envisaged by the great Renaissance poet Dante in The Divine Comedy. Adès’s musical sound-painting is equally vibrant, from the fiery first movement which won the LA Phil a Grammy, to the slapstick dance depicting thieves devoured by reptiles.  

This is Dudamel’s 17th year as the LA Phil’s Music and Artistic Director – don’t miss the chance to experience their legendary partnership live.

Supported by Dunard Fund