Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Is the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra a shining example of how music can lift underprivileged young people out of poverty and hopelessness? Or has it become an instrument of state propaganda on behalf of a discredited regime?By the time it made its BBC Proms debut in 2007, the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra was not only the flagship of El Sistema, Venezuela’s state-sponsored music education system, but an exemplar for other countries to follow. Many did so, but the growing political controversy over President Maduro’s government has since tarnished the brand. Close allies of Maduro, including his son, sit on El Sistema’s board.Named the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra since 2011 and with its players now adults, it is marking its 50th anniversary with a three-week European tour, taking in concerts in Paris, London and five other cities. The conductor is Gustavo Dudamel, a beneficiary of El Sistema himself, who has risen to great things, not least his forthcoming arrival as music director of the New York Philharmonic next year.Citing the transformative influence Venezuela’s music education system had on him, Dudamel has been defending his continued involvement, saying that the values of El Sistema remain important to him and that young people in the country deserve “support and respect”.Of the programmes they are taking on tour, their second of two performances at the Barbican was the high-octane one. Dudamel and his Simón Bolívar musicians have long been champions of Latin American music, a vocation he has kept going through his years with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and a pair of contemporary, homegrown composers from Venezuela shared the first half.The defining characteristic of this music is rhythm and that was very much to the fore in Ricardo Lorenz’s Todo Terreno from 2022. An exploration of the Venezuelan outback, it charts the colours and vistas of the wild in music of poster-paint tones and orchestral panache.From the same year comes Odisea by Gonzalo Grau, in effect a concerto for the cuatro, a kind of smaller Spanish guitar, amplified here. This was a looser piece, derived from folk tunes, which owed much of its success to the virtuosity of its soloist, Jorge Glem.Indeed, the highlight of the whole evening was Glem’s encore. Over five minutes or so of solo cuatro, he gave us a whistle-stop tour of musical history, taking in Bach, Bizet, Beethoven (with some novel harmonies that would have surprised the composer), Carl Orff, Tchaikovsky and more. It was quite a tour de force.For the main work Dudamel offered Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 4 with the stage filled to bursting with players. Very big orchestras are rarely good news in the Barbican acoustic and some thick and heavy Tchaikovsky was the result. Balance and ensemble were also not of the highest standard, though Dudamel whipped up the pace to exciting effect in the finale. As the usual, rip-roaring encores proved, he is a live wire on the conductor’s podium. The Simón Bolívar players are lucky to have him.★★★☆☆barbican.org.uk
