At the Walt Disney Concert Hall, backed by the LA Phil, Yo-Yo Ma and Gustavo Dudamel celebrated John Williams’s fantastic musical legacy and enduring friendship.
By John Lavitt
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 04-09-2025
In a rare and radiant evening at Walt Disney Concert Hall, three giants of music—Yo-Yo Ma, Gustavo Dudamel, and the legendary composer John Williams—converged to celebrate a lifetime of artistic brilliance and enduring friendship.
At 93, John Williams remains one of the most influential composers in modern history. Best known for his iconic film scores—Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T., Jaws, Superman, Harry Potter, and so many more—his music has defined the sound of cinema for generations. Yet this night was not just about cinematic legacy; it was about the deep personal bonds forged through music.
The evening opened with Yo-Yo Ma performing Williams’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, a piece the composer wrote specifically for him in the 1990s. Backed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and conducted by Dudamel, Ma delivered a performance of stunning grace and emotional depth. For the audience, it was breathtaking. For Ma, it was about love and respect.
In a touching symmetry of time, Ma recalled in a moving YouTube video how, as a young man, he once sat in awe as Williams conducted the Boston Philharmonic. On this night, decades later, the roles were reversed: Williams watched from the audience in a wheelchair as Ma played his music with reverent intensity, a tribute not just to the notes on the page but to the man who wrote them. Yo-Yo Ma plays with passion and precision; this realization of artistic genius takes the audience’s breath away.
The program’s second half featured a cinematic tour de force, as Dudamel led the LA Phil through a selection of Williams’s greatest themes—Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and others. Each piece felt more spiritually intoxicating than the next, evoking childhood memories, movie magic, and a shared cultural heritage shaped by Williams’ unmistakable sound. And there were so many more they could have done.
Yet beneath the spectacle was a quieter, more poignant story: the mentorship and friendship between Williams and Dudamel. When the Venezuelan conductor took over the LA Phil in 2009, he was not yet 30. Williams, already a fixture with the orchestra for over three decades, became a friend and a guide into the magic and through the mazes of Hollywood. Admiring each other’s work, they became close, and that bond, nurtured over years of collaboration, was evident in every note.
As Dudamel prepares to depart Los Angeles to take the helm of the New York Philharmonic, this evening was a heartfelt bookend to his extraordinary chapter with the LA Phil. The sight of Williams joining Ma and Dudamel onstage to a thunderous standing ovation was more than ceremonial—it was profoundly moving.
In honoring John Williams, the night became a celebration of more than musical mastery. It was a testament to friendship, legacy, and the power of art to connect hearts across generations. Indeed, this performance with Yo-Yo Ma in honor of John Williams captured the heart and soul of Gustavo Dudamel’s time in Los Angeles.
