The Promise of Music is a full-length feature film about the story of Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. The film documents Dudamel preparing his orchestra in Caracas for their upcoming concert at the Beethovenfest in Bonn, 2007. Following different young musicians in their day-to-day lives, the film shows how classical music has the capability of changing both the individual and their environment. Director Enrique Sanchez Lansch previously created the award-winning documentary Rhythm Is It! about Sir Simon Rattle's education project with the Berliner Philharmoniker, and now he turns his attention to classical music's hottest young star. A unique and deeply moving look behind the scenes of one of the most talked about phenomena in the musical world of today! Dudamel tours the US with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in November and returns with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in April, 2009.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
A mixed bag:
The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela is indeed "astonishing" as is the large scale classical music program of this country which helps produce these young musicians. The documentary (91 MIN) is truly inspiring and their two encores at their Bonn Beethoven Festival concert are great fun both visually and musically. All the above are worth six stars. And the performance of the Eroica is dramatic and certainly not bad given the large size of the orchestra and its youth. If I were at the concert I too... more info
A Promise for Hope:
I will be forever thankful to Mr Sanchez and Gustavo Dudamel for this beautiful picture of my country and its people. This DVD shows what Venezuelans are capable of if only they are allowed to develop their potential. Besides this, the Bonn Concert is just fabulous. The Eroica performance can be rated with those of the great orchestras of the world. I had listened to some previous recordings of the Simon Bolivar Orchestra and Mr Dudamel and thought they were OK, but this one changed my mind completely. From... more info