“Normally I don’t drink during lunch, but today I’m relaxed,” Gustavo Dudamel says, as he orders us two glasses of a Navarra Chardonnay on the sommelier’s recommendation and we settle into the verdant surroundings of the Jardín del Alma at the Hotel Alma in springtime Barcelona.
Before now, I hadn’t considered the possibility that Dudamel — the 43-year-old superstar conductor and music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra — and The Dude, as he is widely known, might be two distinct personalities. But if Dudamel is known for his dynamism on the podium, for his capacity, ever since blasting on to the classical music scene in the 2000s as conductor of Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra, to inspire audiences to a state of exaltation with his performances of Beethoven, Shostakovich, Mahler and more, then maybe The Dude is his chilled-out alter ego.
“This is an amazing place,” he says, rearranging his sunglasses on our immaculately laid table. The Alma itself, a study in luxe monochrome, is owned by a friend. Dudamel and his wife, the Spanish actor María Valverde, spend much of their time in Madrid but often stay here when work brings them to Catalonia.