If there's a backlash against Gustavo Dudamel, I won't be joining in

There has been Dudamania in London again, as the Los Angeles Philharmonic swept in to the Barbican last week for a pair of concerts with Gustavo Dudamel, their 30-year-old Venezuelan chief conductor. The Southbank Centre and Barbican seem to be vying with each other as to who can out-Dude the other: the LA Phil is now officially an associate orchestra at the Barbican, and Friday saw the first in a series of education projects where Dudamel will conduct young players from east London alongside music students. Meanwhile, over at Southbank, they have just announced that he will perform with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in June 2012. I can feel the chill winds of a Dudamel backlash forming, and yet I'm not in the sceptics' camp. His conducting is uneven, and yet his passion is utterly inspiring. In London last week he said this: "The word 'professional' is destroying our art. In the end we are artists ... The most boring thing in the world is to see someone doing their job without passion." A rather pointed remark, I felt, to the sometimes cynical music world.