Dudamel and the LA Phil: Beethoven and Ortiz

Live at the BBC Proms: The Los Angeles Philharmonic and conductor Gustavo Dudamel perform Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and are joined by the Los Angeles Master Chorale for Gabriela Ortiz's Revolución diamantina.

Presented by Martin Handley, live from the Royal Albert Hall, London.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 7 in A major

c.7.35pm
Interval: Martin Handley talks to composer Gabriela Ortiz about the ideas behind her piece Revolución diamantina ahead of its UK premiere. Inspired by Mexico City's 2019 "Glitter Revolution" protests against gender-based violence, the work transforms the acts of feminist activism into a powerful orchestral score exploring resistance, solidarity and the demand for social change.

c.7.55pm
Gabriela Ortiz: Revolución diamantina (UK premiere)

Los Angeles Master Chorale
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Gustavo Dudamel (conductor)

In the second of their two Proms, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its Music Director Gustavo Dudamel again pair a Beethoven symphony with a contemporary ballet. The obsessive, often wild rhythms of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 – famously described by Wagner as ‘the apotheosis of the dance’ – meet the politically charged pulse of Gabriela Ortiz’s Revolución diamantina: music ‘full of visceral primeval rhythms and mysterious, soulful sound-worlds’. Taking Mexico’s 2019 Glitter Revolution as its starting point, this groove-driven, urgent score – ‘a ritual in motion’ – roars against female oppression in music of fierce, hypnotic beauty.