The Financial Times' Harry Eyres reports and comments on Gustavo Dudamel's appearance at the Barbican Centre:
After an hour-and-a-half rehearsing Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet with a mixed youth orchestra from east London and Los Angeles, Gustavo Dudamel felt the need to sit down on the podium."I must be getting old," he joked (in fact he had every reason to feel a little weary, having just returned from a trip to Venezuela to conduct at the state funeral of Hugo Chávez). It was not entirely a joke, because Dudamel, in his 30s, a little bit more rounded than when I last saw him, suddenly appeared if not middle-aged, then old enough to be a (young) father to the youngest of the musicians in the orchestra.