What I’ll Be Spending Money & Time On Starting In September 2009

I sat through a couple of generic 60 Minutes stories for the first time in months (no bowling for me tonight, alas) in order to see the last segment, their profile of young hotshot Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who is slated to become the music director of the LA Philharmonic in 2009, taking over from Esa-Pekka Salonen. (I like Salonen too, though his tastes tend to be a little different than mine when in comes to the programming, which has been very Shostakovich-heavy the past few years.)

Interesting story of a real prodigy and product of “El Sistema,” a Venezuelan program for training young kids in music that is responsible for one of the best youth orchestras in the world – but it was heavier on profile and interviewing Dudamel rather than showing him at work, conducting music.

So, I went looking around, and found this:

It’s Dudamel conducting the finale of Mahler’s Third at La Scala… and it’s just GOD DAMN AMAZING!!!

I’ve slacked off keeping up my LA Phil subscription the past couple of years, a combination of tickets growing more expensive and programming I felt lukewarm about more than often… but I think this guy will light the place up. Go to his website linked above and click on the links to his recordings to hear more. It’s enough to get ME off my wallet… it must be GENIUS!