Esa-Pekka Salonen Brings His Cool to New York’s Music Scene
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Version 0 of 1. He has held musical soirees at National Sawdust in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He led the New York Philharmonic in Messiaen’s boffo “Turangalîla-Symphonie” in March at David Geffen Hall, where, a week later, Alan Gilbert conducted the New York premiere of his Dada piece, “Karawane.” Now he is next door, conducting Strauss’s “Elektra” at the Metropolitan Opera. No, the stars did not align to make Esa-Pekka Salonen, the Finnish conductor and composer who brings a dash of cool to classical music, the next music director of the New York Philharmonic (though he had topped the wish lists of many prominent critics). But if he is the One Who Got Away — he publicly expressed ambivalence about the job, and the orchestra opted for the Dutch maestro Jaap van Zweden — this year, Mr. Salonen feels a bit like the de facto music director of New York City through his high-profile Philharmonic and Met gigs. His name has a way of popping up in the unlikeliest places, including a recent press junket promoting the movie “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” When a Finnish interviewer asked the actress Holly Hunter about what it was like to appear in such a blockbuster, Ms. Hunter steered the conversation in an unexpected direction. “Esa-Pekka Salonen,” Ms. Hunter began, apologizing for her digression. “I was longing for him to come to the New York Philharmonic.” During a recent interview over an iced green tea, Mr. Salonen appeared more than happy with the way things have worked out. He likened his extended New York sojourn this year to the relationship he had formed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic since stepping down as its music director in 2009, after 17 years, to devote more time to composing, other projects and his family. “Now when I go back, I guess it could be as a grandparent,” said Mr. Salonen, a youthful 57. “You just see the kids, have a good time — and then somebody else is in charge!” New Yorkers will have the chance to be spoiled by a visiting grandparent next season, too. On Monday the Metropolitan Opera announced that Mr. Salonen would conduct all of the Met Orchestra’s concerts at Carnegie Hall next spring, replacing James Levine, who is stepping down as the company’s music director at the end of this season because of health problems. And in one of the biggest musical events of the fall, Mr. Salonen will conduct the New York Philharmonic in October at the Park Avenue Armory in works by Kaija Saariaho, whom he has known since he was a student and they were both members of Ears Open, a Finnish new-music collective. The Saariaho event is an example of the kind that the Philharmonic has increasingly embraced under the tenure of Mr. Gilbert, who will step down as music director in 2017, after eight years. Mr. Salonen — who has long proselytized for new approaches to programming and new ways of appealing to younger, artistically inclined people who do not often listen to classical music — spoke about the need for the music world to adapt. “We should loosen up a bit, and accept the fact that there are so many experiences available that loftiness doesn’t get us anywhere,” he said. “Self-improvement is not a reason to buy a ticket, which is not cheap. It has to operate on a totally different level. It has to be: O.K., here is an experience you won’t forget.” When Mr. Salonen, who is finishing the first of three seasons as the New York Philharmonic’s composer in residence, led Messiaen’s “Turangalîla-Symphonie” last month, The Guardian wrote in its five-star review that the evening had taken on “true ‘event’ status.” “I have been at concerts where more than half the audience left,” Mr. Salonen said of the piece, noting how tastes change. “And now it’s like a hip cult piece.” During his more intimate concert last month at National Sawdust as part of the Philharmonic’s Contact! series, Mr. Salonen explored Messiaen’s influence on other composers. “We have been so apologetic in this, what we call classical music, that we say: ‘You don’t have to know anything, you don’t have to have any background, you don’t have to have any frame of reference, just come with an open mind, and you’ll love it,’” he said at one point during the evening. “It doesn’t quite work like that. Because if I go to an American football game not knowing anything about the rules — as, I have to admit, I don’t — it’s totally meaningless.” Mr. Salonen occasionally escapes the Lincoln Center area to stay downtown in the apartment of his friend the architect Frank Gehry, whom he collaborated with during the building of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. At the apartment, he said, he has managed to “push forward” a cello concerto he is composing for Yo-Yo Ma. Conductors who compose have sometimes been plagued with self-doubt: Was their composing tolerated because of their conducting work, or perhaps vice versa? “I have encountered that sort of suspicion — that if you do two things, one must be fake, surely, because nobody can do two things well,” Mr. Salonen said. “It’s a strange statement to make, because you go a hundred years back, and every musician was also a composer.” Mr. Salonen said that classical music institutions should embrace the changes that are coming. “The thing that worries me is so-called relevance,” he said. “Because every day that goes by, the distance between us and, say, Beethoven, gets one day longer. And if you think of the music of the Renaissance composers, the distance is such that we can safely say that they have lost their relevance. And by saying this, I know there is a large group of people that will start screaming blue murder. But if you think from the mainstream perspective, this is so.” “I think classical music, or Western art music, or whatever, should be seen as some kind of an organism,” he said. “For Beethoven to keep its relevance, we need new growth, so that the rubber band that connects us wouldn’t be stretched, but lengthened. So that if things keep growing organically, there will be new rings on the trunk of the tree, and new growth in the spring. Some things die away. And some things flourish. And nothing is taken for granted. But if we don’t make sure that it grows, then we’re done. Sooner or later, we’re done.” “Elektra,” which will be simulcast to cinemas around the world on Saturday, opened the night that the Met announced that Mr. Levine would be stepping down. In an almost comically familiar moment for Mr. Salonen, who spent much of last year fending off questions about the top job at the Philharmonic, critics at both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were soon floating his name for the newly vacant position next door. Mr. Salonen once again found himself demurring. “These august institutions should look for the next generation,” he wrote in a follow-up email. “Change that is inevitably going to shake our industry can best be met by young, visionary, fearless leaders. Status quo is the archenemy of living art.” |