Dudamel and 'The Firebird' set Davies Hall aflame

How to capture, in music, the image of a bird of flaming gold, flying this way and that through a secret garden? Gustavo Dudamel managed Thursday night with the San Francisco Symphony: The orchestra erupted in plumes of color as Dudamel, only 27, with liquid hand gestures that were at times almost distractingly beautiful, seemed to pull streamers of color up and down, tossing them about, helping the orchestra to be 'The Firebird' of Igor Stravinsky's imagination.