At his last concert as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic 16 years ago, every musician in the orchestra lined up on stage to hug a red-faced Esa-Pekka Salonen. At every Salonen La Phil appearance as conductor laureate in the past year, an energetic audience has begun chanting “Bring him back.”
That wish is now being granted. La Phil has created a new position as Creative Director of Salonen, starting with the 2026/27 season. He will conduct the orchestra for four weeks in the coming seasons and then for at least six weeks in the following seasons.
While the five-year appointment does not impose administrative requirements on Salonen, it will allow him to undertake special projects, create festivals, commission premieres, mentor new conductors under the new Salonen international management, and collaborate with Lightroom, an immersive arts event conceived by British high-tech and artist-led artists.
It may not answer the burning question of who will succeed Gustavo Dudamel. The search continues as Dudamel prepares to begin his final season as music director of La Phil before taking over at the New York Philharmonic next year. But it does provide a continuation of Salonen’s progressive vision for a 21st-century orchestra that transformed La Phil into the world’s most successful and influential symphony orchestra.
“It makes a lot of sense to me from my perspective,” Salonen said by phone from his home in Finland. “I don’t have to be the daily grind and take on the responsibilities of music director, but still, it’s more than being a guest conductor. It’s an opportunity to work [it] in a different time perspective.”
After spending the past four decades as music director of four orchestras, the 67-year-old Finnish composer and conductor insists he no longer wants the full responsibility of running an organization. In June, he stepped down from five demanding seasons at the helm of the San Francisco Symphony, an offer that had offered Salonen, who has a tech nerd side, what seemed like the perfect opportunity to imagine a symphony orchestra in a land of technological innovation, but then spectacularly failed to back him up.
As for LA, Salonen says, “It’s just fun.
“My idea of what an orchestra should be [the visionary head of the LA Phil who hired and empowered Salonen] is the idea of an orchestra that doesn’t exist in a bubble, but more like being in the contemporary art scene. There’s a very broad scope of things.”
It’s something that Dudamel, who was Salonen’s pick to succeed him, has embraced in an unprecedented expansion of the symphony orchestra into the community and beyond—adding a comprehensive arts education program (YOLA) and even taking La Phil to the Oscars, the Super Bowl and, this spring, Coachella. Salonen likens his new post to “kind of taking the ball and keeping it all in the family.”
The new position also gives Salonen the opportunity for something else he says he has long wanted: to move back to L.A., where he raised a family for 17 years as music director of the La Phil and where two of his three children now live. But Salonen has also become an international star, one of the world’s handful of leading conductors and composers. This summer, he was the star of the prestigious Salzburg Festival, and on Saturday, he conducted the world premiere of his captivating horn concerto at the Lucerne Festival, which was broadcast on Swiss radio.
Šis koncerts notika ar Orchester de Paris, kurai tagad būs nozīmīga loma Salonen’s un La Phil nākotnē. Kopā ar LA iecelšanu Salonen uzņemsies nedaudz līdzīgu radošuma un inovāciju priekšsēdētāja amatu un Filharmonijas galveno diriģentu Parīzes koncertzāli. Vairāki no Salonen La Phil projektiem būs saistīti ar Philharmonie, un tajā ietilpst La Phil tūres uz Parīzi, kā arī Orchester de Paris uz Volta Disneja koncertzāli.
Tas faktiski ir vēl viena Parīzes lomas realizācija lielajā La Phil pārveidošanā. 1996. gada oktobrī, tieši 30 gadus, pirms viņš sāks savu jauno La Phil Post, Salonens aizveda La Phil uz Parīzi uz mēneša ilgu Stravinsky festivālu. Bija pagājusi gandrīz desmit gadi, kopš Volta Disneja atraitne Lillian Disney bija pasniegusi sākotnējo 55 miljonu dolāru dāvanu jaunai koncertzālei. Tomēr līdzekļu vākšana bija apstājusies, atstājot vēl 150 miljonus dolāru, kas nepieciešami būvniecības sākšanai. Apgabals gatavojās vilkt spraudni.
“Mana ideja par to, kādai vajadzētu būt orķestrim, atgriežas pie Ernesta Fleischmann, ideju par orķestri, kas neeksistē burbulī, bet vairāk līdzinās tam, ka ir laikmetīgās mākslas ainā. Ir ļoti plaša lietu joma,” Salonen stāstīja The Times.
(Deivids Svensons/The Times)
Reiz La Phil valdes locekļi un mecenāti, kuri bija devušies uz Parīzi festivālā, dzirdēja, ka Salonens veic atklājošu Stravinska “Rite of Spring” priekšnesumu teātrī du Chatelet-koncertzālē, kurā skaņa atdzīvojās tādā veidā, kā tā nekad nevarēja Dorothy Chandler Pavilion bija jauns pēdējais laiks, kas ietaupīja dienu.
2004. gadā, gadu pēc Salonenas triumfējošās Disneja atklāšanas, viņš atklāja “Tristan projektu”, kas bija kopražojums ar Parīzes operas un to ierosināja. Šis iestudējums, kuru vadīja Pīters Sellars un ar Bila Viola video, nodrošināja pilnīgi jaunu modeli 21. gadsimta operai un Disneja zālei kā māksliniecisko inovāciju vietu.
Radošā direktora amats ir pirmā galvenā Kima Noltemija iniciatīva, kurš pagājušajā vasarā kļuva par LA Phil prezidentu un izpilddirektoru, un līdz ar to viņa ierosina pārdomāt to, kā simfoniskais orķestris varētu darboties nākotnē. Džūdita un Tomasa L. Bekmena pozīcija ir apveltīta ar vairāku miljardu dolāru lielu dāvanu (summa nav publiskota, bet tiek uzskatīts, ka tā ir 10 skaitļos) un paredzēta, lai tā notiktu paredzamā nākotnē.
Noltemija saka, ka viņa cer, ka šī nākotne turpinās Salonen. Tas nozīmē pāreju no 19. gadsimta autoritāras mākslinieciskas dominēšanas mūzikas direktoram, kurš joprojām ir gandrīz visur demokrātiskāks un utopiskāks jēdziens.
Papildus ieguldījumam orķestra redzējumā Salonen kā kāds ārpus administrācijas varētu kalpot arī kā organizācijas sirdsapziņa. Tas turklāt paver ceļu uz vairāk nekā vienu mūzikas direktoru, ļaujot orķestrim arvien vairāk elpot mākslinieciskajai un sabiedrības paplašināšanai.
The radical meaning of Fleischmann’s once controversial ideal is the symphony orchestra, which expands into a vast community of musicians that La Phil gradually understands. It already has a team of famous creative collaborators that includes composer John Adams, jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, and baroque music specialist Emanuelle Haïm.
The new position could allow Salonen to play an additional role in expanding the Grand Avenue cultural district. Along with La Phil, Salonen is principal at the Colburn School, across the street from Disney, and Colburn is well-versed in the new 1,000-seat concert hall behind the Grand, designed by Frank Gehry, with whom Salonen worked closely on the Disney Hall building.
Gehry has proposed improvements to Disney for years, but they have fallen on deaf ears. But Noltemiya says she wants to see at least some of them through, such as projections outside the hall and turning the BP Hall, where Preachers’ talks are held, into an elegant chamber music venue. She says there seems to be new impetus from the board and donors.
Salonen’s new appointment may not have made the role of music director or directors irrelevant; in the meantime, it leaves the La Phil no longer hidden. Whereas Salonen devoted six weeks of each season to the orchestra, Dudamel said he wants to return for four weeks and do special projects in L.A., with conductor emeritus Zubin Mehta wanting a week or two, along with Haïm’s ongoing Handel project, which already exceeds the 10 weeks a music director typically spends.
