Latest Release
- 3 NOV 2023
- 4 Songs
- Lise Davidsen · 2019
- Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet - Highlights · 1988
- Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring · 2006
- Sibelius/Goldmark: Violin Concertos · 1999
- Schoenberg: Violin Concerto - Sibelius: Violin Concerto, Op. 47 · 2000
- Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 · 2023
- Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 2, Piano Concerto, Chantefleurs et Chantefables · 1996
- Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 · 2023
- Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 · 2023
Essential Albums
- Recorded towards the end of his 25-year reign at the helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Salonen here demonstrates what a superb orchestra he’d trained. Playing is crisp, rhythmically precise, but also alive to the amazing range of colours these three works demand. Mussorgsky’s ghoulish nocturnal fiesta takes on a menace in its original scoring; Bartók’s sleazy ballet oozes atmosphere; and Stravinsky’s shattering Rite has rarely been presented with such a feeling for its orchestral originality, thanks to the magnificent recording.
Artist Playlists
- This Finnish conductor/composer brings great passion to modern orchestral works.
Singles & EPs
Live Albums
About Esa-Pekka Salonen
One of a generation of gifted conductors produced by Finland’s highly developed music education system, Esa-Pekka Salonen is noted for musical interpretations of exceptional dynamism and clarity, underpinned by an extraordinarily accurate ear for sonority and technical detail. Born in Helsinki in 1958, Salonen at first took interest primarily in composing, and he began to conduct in order to direct performances of his own music; while a student at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy he co-founded the performing groups Korvat auki (“Ears open”) and Toimii (“It works”) with the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. In 1983 he was asked by London’s Philharmonia Orchestra to replace an unwell conductor at very short notice for a performance of Mahler’s huge-scale Symphony No. 3, a spectacular success that launched Salonen’s international conducting career. As the Philharmonia’s principal guest conductor (1985-94) and then music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1992-2009), Salonen explored a wide concert repertory with a strong focus on 20th-century composers, and during his tenure the LAPO also commissioned and performed over 50 new works. His more recent composing style filters his earlier modernism (as in Floof for soprano and chamber group, 1982) through an idiom of sumptuous sonic appeal and orchestral virtuosity; major statements have included the orchestral L.A. Variations (1996) and a concerto each for piano (2007), violin (2009), and cello (2017). From 2008 Salonen was principal conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra for 13 years, and in 2020 he became music director of the San Francisco Symphony.
- HOMETOWN
- Helsinki, Finland
- BORN
- 30 June 1958
- GENRE
- Classical