One of the most rewarding things I've done this summer has been going to a concert by Benito Lertxundi. Some years ago I heard him last but not so much, and I think it can be said, without any fear of being mistaken, that he is an artist who overcomes himself over the years, and that he offers ever more beautiful shows, which work with the precision of a Swiss watch, with leading players and voice companions he has. One thing I didn't like at the concert: to see that I was one of the youngest, among the listeners. The older ones have not been able to convey to the younger ones what kind of artist Benito is; or perhaps the clash between generations is no more than that of always; or perhaps we have tried to extinguish the glare of Benito with our usual frivolity and envy. In spite of everything, it seems to me that many people, who at one point or another in their career, have been a follower of Lertxundi, do not know what they do today, because they believe that they have already given the best of twenty or twenty-five years ago; and if today they listened to a concert of their own, they would flirt.

Our esnobism has no limits: if, on one of our usual trips, I were to go to one of those stateless nations – Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Flanders – if the idea of listening to an artist of the size of the singer of Orio emerged, references to him back home would also be heard in the antipodes. If you have it there, I blow it. Lertxundi will surely be one of the few who least cares about these nonsense. In the talks it gives, it expresses itself freely and loosely, as one who lives far from the concern of political justice. How not one who has been singing Zenbat Gera for more than forty years will speak free and calm. Maybe then, when we heard it, we thought it was too much, and we didn't take too much notice. Then they started to make the fool.

The faithful followers of Orio will perhaps read these lines with irony. Those who are more dedicated to other forms of music are astonished, astonished. Fortunately, there has also been someone who has talked about Benito with more intensity and more time. I heard him say that in that summer concert, when he was two and a half hours of concert, something fluttered me inside.