What Gustavo Dudamel’s final weekend shows at the Hollywood Bowl were like

In the end, as Gustavo Dudamel, wrapped up his 17 years as leader of the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday, Aug. 23, there was an outpouring of love.

“What a wonderful night,” Dudamel said as the end of A Concert for Venezuela, his final performance as music and artistic director, neared its conclusion. “You know, I have spent the last 17 years of my life in this city. A city that welcomed me with very, very open arms, and that I have come to call my home.

“Seventeen years later, I can say I am an Angeleno,” he continued. “The extraordinary journey that brought me here changed completely my life.”

He thanked the musicians behind him on stage. On Sunday, he’d led a musical fundraiser for earthquake relief in his home country of Venezuela; on Saturday, he and the L.A. Phil had backed the Foo Fighters; and on Friday, he and a host of Latin music stars threw a fiesta of song.

“Gracias, gracias, gracias, gracias for every single second that we have shared together, and that we will share, of course, in the future too, c’mon,” Dudamel continued, speaking to the orchestra and audience alike, and promising that even after he moves to the New York Philharmonic in September, he’ll return as guest conductor.

“I was a very young boy coming from Venezuela,” Dudamel said of his start in Los Angeles in 2009. “I was called, like, ‘a conducting animal.’ I don’t know why, but maybe because the hair, which grows now to gray, which I’m very proud of.

“Together, we have started from a simple idea. There is only one music, and tonight I want to thank you, my dear Los Angeles. To this wonderful audience that has embraced me, embraced us during these years, and gave all the love that you have given, all of this wonderful energy that you send.

“Can we have the lights there to see them? Is it possible?” Dudamel asked as lights illuminated the packed Hollywood Bowl. “You are all amazing. I can say only one phrase. I love you so much, Los Angeles.”

Shouts of “I love you, Gustavo!” had cut through the silent moments at times throughout Sunday night, but now the entire audience cheered loudly in unison.

Then, after a performance by singer Chris Martin of Coldplay, more on that in a moment, Dudamel took his final bows as conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Well, almost final. With a standing ovation that lasted nearly five minutes, he returned for three more curtain calls, bowing and crossing his arms over his chest in a hug-like gesture, before finally he was gone, though the love remains eternal.

Sunday: A Concert for Venezuela

After Dudamel’s heartfelt remarks on Sunday, he promised “a little gift for you to discover.” Turns out it was a Chris Martin-sized gift sitting in the orchestra with a microphone who started to sing a moment or two later.

After a beautiful orchestral take on “Fix You,” Martin and Dudamel upped the energy with “Viva la Vida,” and its story of a monarch who lost his kingdom. A Dudamel reference? Nah, that came next in the highlight of the night.

“I met Gustavo at a party about 12 years ago,” Martin said. “And I fell in love with him. As a heterosexual man, it confused me,” he continued, Dudamel, the orchestra and audience all erupting in laughter. “And I realized that it wasn’t so much sexual as musical in the way that I wanted to cuddle him forever. And we’ve been cuddling musically ever since.”

Turning to Dudamel, whom Martin had now placed in a chair with a sash like a monarch on his throne, Martin told Dudamel he’d written a song for him.

“This is a song about a loved one leaving you and going far away,” he said. “You’re sad, and you’re heartbroken that they’re leaving. But you send them away with love and with prayers and with just a feeling of gratitude for the time you had together.

“I feel like this song may be appropriate for us as people who live in Los Angeles to you, Gustavo, our great love, who is leaving, but we send you with such grace and gratitude on your travels. Because wherever you go, you’re going to bring light and love and we’re going to be grateful for you.”

It was a beautiful speech, and the song? Well, it was beautiful, too, but also hilariously funny as Martin shifted from his heartfelt lyrics, some of which he sang in Spanish, to the absurd, as the singer got more and more dramatic and emotional.

“Oh my God,” Martin sang in Spanish. “I’m so sad. Crying a river. I miss him.”

By now, Dudamel was shaking his head and laughing.

“The way an orchestra is designed. We mainly stared at your behind,” Martin sang, again in Spanish. “So never mind. We’re still behind you, further away.”

And so it went, with laughter and no doubt some tears, until “San Gustavo,” the title Martin joked that Duolingo promised him meant “St. Gustavo,” was finished and Martin and the LA Phil wrapped up the night with “Feelslikeimfallinginlove.”

Earlier, A Concert of Venezuela had mixed music with calls for donations to help the nation after it was hit by two powerful earthquakes on June 24.

Meme Del Real from Cafe Tacuba, the Venezuelan pop star Lasso and L.A.’s own Beck each sang with Dudamel and the L.A. Phil early in the show. Venezuelan cellist Gregorio Nieto played “Stella Aria,” a gorgeous piece composed by actor Anthony Hopkins on whose new album Nieto and Dudamel collaborated.

Colombian star Carlos Vives did a pair of high-energy songs with the orchestra before intermission. After the break, Mexican singer Natalia Lafourcade wowed the crowd with her powerhouse vocals, joined at one point by a choir from Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, one of Dudamel’s proudest achievements during his tenure in the city.

Long Beach native Giveon sang a slow-jam R&B love song with the orchestra, after which Venezuelan singers Nella and Adria Duque duetted on “Venezuela,” an ode to the beauty, strength and grace of that nation.

” Let’s not say ‘last concert,’ because it’s not a last concert; it will never be a last,” Dudamel had said shortly after the start of Sunday’s concert. “I want to thank all of you for the generosity of being here tonight, embraced by the music and sending all of this beautiful and powerful energy to our beloved Venezuela.

“In a world that keeps dividing us, when we have the chance to gather here, and I see all of you sitting here, all very tight, very close together, enjoying some good food, some good drinks, but mostly, again, the beautiful power of music, I have hope.

“Because we are one world. One. One,” Dudamel continued. “And we can see that when we get united we can be very powerful. We can create beauty.”

Saturday: Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters had never before played the Hollywood Bowl, and singer-guitarist Dave Grohl was pumped that he and the band were making their debut with Dudamel and the L.A. Phil on Saturday.

“Usually in this part of the program, I ask the audience if they love rock and roll music,” Grohl told the audience after the Foo Fighters kicked off their night with “Times Like These” and “All My Friends.” “Do you love rock and roll? Do you love rock and roll?”

“OK, but tonight I’m going to ask this question for the first time,” Grohl said as the cheers of this packed house of rock-and-roll-loving fans died down. “Do you love Dudamel? Do you love Dudamel? Me, too.

“So let’s play some rock and roll for Mr. Dudamel now,” he finished. “That’s what we came here to do.”

Over the rest of the hour and 40 minutes, the band and the orchestra sharing the stage was one of the best rock band-orchestra shows you could ever hope to see. Too many times the orchestra is drowned out by the rock band or simply not given enough to play to make a significant difference in the songs.

Not so here. In song after song, the Foo Fighters and the L.A. Phil matched each other for passion and power. On some, such as “A320,” “I Should Have Known,” or “Razor,” the orchestra opened or had sustained sections where they carried the bulk of the songs. [Grohl had noted that some songs, including those, were chosen because of how well they’d work in this setting.]

Others, including “The Sky Is a Neighborhood,” which included a gospel choir, and “Everlong,” the 15th and final song of the set, simply benefited from the additional textures and tones of the combined band and orchestra.

“I wish we could do this every [bleepin’] night for the rest of our lives,” Grohl said before “Everlong,” occasionally strumming his guitar strings as he spoke. “With all of these amazing people. I mean, c’mon, whether it’s Gustavo, the choir, the orchestra, you have to give it up for the actual musicians tonight.”

Long, loud cheers fall from every row of the amphitheater.

“What an honor to come and be invited to this hallowed ground, this special place,” Grohl continued. “To be able to give Gustavo one more big rock show before he has to leave this wonderful city. And then to share this experience with all of your guys. It’s so amazing.”

Friday: Gustavo’s Fiesta

Friday night was billed as Dudamel’s “musical love letter to Los Angeles,” and in particular, the city’s vast, diverse Latin community and culture.

The trio Los Panchos opened the show with a performance of romantic ballads and boleros. Founded in 1944 and currently led by Chucho Navarro Jr., the son of one of the founding members, songs “Bésame Mucho” and “Historia de un Amor” struck a classic, nostalgic feeling that surely spoke to multiple generations in the audience.

They were followed by Vilma Diaz, the Colombian singer known as “the diva of the cumbia,” who, with her nine-piece band, got hips swaying throughout their set to rhythms of songs, including a cumbia-infused take on “La Bamba.”

Spanish singer Silvia Pérez Cruz was a highlight of the early portion of the party. She sang just two songs, but her modern take on traditional music was beautiful. During “Tonada de Luna Llena,” a Venezuelan folk song about the full moon, she cried to “la luna” as it appeared in the night sky at the back of the Bowl.

Her Spanish-language take on Leonard Cohen’s “Take This Waltz” was a gorgeous full circle moment, Cohen having adapted the lyrics from the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Pequeño Vals Vienés” with a snippet of Cohen’s “Hallelujah” at the end.

The 13 women of Mariachi Reyna de Los Angeles who arrived on stage in rose-colored mariachi suits, matching cowboy boots, and wide-brimmed mariachi sombreros. The group, which performed earlier this year with Karol G. at Coachella, received a loud hometown welcome for their two numbers, one of their own, another with Mexican-Indigenous singer Lila Downs.

Downs and three of the Mariachi Reyna who played Latin guitar-style instruments stayed on stage for the arrival of Dudamel and the L.A. Phil, with Downs delivering a show-stopping dramatic version of the traditional Mexican folk song “La Llorena.”

Then Los Tigres del Norte, the long-running stars of norteño music, arrived as the headlining partners of Dudamel and the orchestra.

With one and sometimes two accordion players at the same time, Los Tigres made a fascinating musical blend with such classical instruments as French horns and clarinets. They played seven songs, including the slow accordion ballad “Golpes en el Corazón” and “América,” during which the band’s six backing dancers came on stage carrying flags of the United States, Mexico, El Salvador, Cuba, Venezuela, and Costa Rica.

As the orchestra stood to leave, Los Tigres cofounder Jorge Hernández asked Dudamel to stay as the band serenaded him with “Jefe de Jefes” – boss of bosses – for the legacy he leaves in Los Angeles.

Five more numbers followed, with many in the crowd dancing and singing along through the finale of “Somos mas Americanos,” a song like “América” and others that celebrates, as Dudamel had with the L.A. Phil, all of the people and cultures of the Americas.