Mental Distortion

The official debut of Gustavo Dudamel, or Gustavo the Great/Gustavissimo/The Dude/G*D, as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic this week at the Hollywood Bowl has certainly created stratespheric expectations for the 28 year old conductor and has had a sort of Messicanic tinge to it all, whether he likes it or not.

But we must be cautious with our expectations. Dudamel is not going to walk on water and he is not going to single-handedly save an art form that has no need of life support. Indeed, were classical music so irrelevant to our times and needs, it could never have produced a Dudamel.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Dudamel is a brilliant musician from what I have gathered so far. But he’s still young and has what will seem to be a stellar career ahead of him. But let him mature and grow more before calling him a genius. However I’d much rather have this sort of excitement focused on someone like Dudadmel than, say, the next André Rieu or Sarah Brightman.

(Via Los Angeles Times.)