Making room for the new guy: Salonen on Dudamel

 

As he was the leader of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 17 years, there are some who probably expected former music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, 51 -- also composer of  "L.A. Variations" and "Wing on Wing," which had their world premieres with the Philharmonic   -- to be sitting front and center when his successor, 28-year-old Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel (do we really need to keep saying who this guy is?) stepped up to the podium for his inaugural concerts earlier this month at the Hollywood Bowl and Walt Disney Concert Hall.

But that's not Salonen's style. During a recent telephone chat with Culture Monster, Salonen, who stepped down from the post largely to pursue his passion for composing and now holds the heady title of the Philharmonic's first Conductor Laureate, talked about why he was conspicuously absent from the hoopla.

Speaking from New York, where the Finnish-born conductor was rehearsing for his much-anticipated debut conducting the Metropolitan Opera in November, Salonen talked about why he didn't show up to walk the pink carpet at Disney Hall (yeah, it was pink) to smile for the cameras and engage in what would definitely have been a photo-op group hug.

The point of our conversation was to talk about composer John Adams, the Phil's new creative chairman and curator of the upcoming West Coast, Left Coast festival of California music, running Nov.21 to Dec. 8. 

What led Salonen to talk about Dudamel was the question: Would you have wanted to curate the festival?

"Not this close to the end of my tenure," said Salonen quickly. "At some point in the future I would be very happy to do something of this sort, but I really felt that there's a new guy in town, and he should get on with it and do his own thing. I really felt that it would be sort of a natural, right thing to do to give him some space. Which is not to say that I wouldn't be listening."

Continued Salonen: "I'll come back at some point when the dust has settled and start working with the Phil again in a different capacity, a different sort of thing -- but not quite yet."

 

Even though Salonen's current focus is composing, he says the mental process of curating a music festival is "not that far from composing, really, because the idea is that the bits and pieces would make sense, and of course composing is something like that. Putting a festival together is a highly creative process. It also kind of forces you to study music and listen to music and read music that you may not encounter in any other way. It's also education."

For Salonen, that would be particularly true of the West Coast, Left Coast Festival, since his adopted home of California became such a huge influence on his composing, particularly in the case of "L.A. Variations." "The best way to define California music is to say that it has no narrowly definable characteristics besides the beauty of it," he said. "I think it was absolutely crucial in my case that I came to a place where there was no preconceived idea of what 'new music' means. In Europe there was a kind of rigid sense of what new music is allowed to be, or what it should be."

Though he'll probably be listening, Salonen won't be attending the West Coast, Left Coast Festival either -- even though Dudamel will be conducting Salonen's "L.A. Variations" as part of the program.  "I'm actually working somewhere else at the time," Salonen said. "But it really warms my heart that old 'L.A. Variations' is going to be performed, but conducted by the new man. It gives me a very nice feeling of continuity."

-- Diane Haithman

 (Culture Monster and Calendar will have more about Adams as the festival nears.)

Related story:

Esa-Pekka Salonen: L.A. has been in good hands

Photos:

Esa-Pekka Salonen embraces Gustavo Dudamel at the April 2007 news conference naming Dudamel as successor. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times.

Salonen conducts the world premiere of "L.A. Variations"  with the L.A. Philharmonic at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1997.  Credit: Iris Schneider / Los Angeles Times 

Comments

[Mickaella Guarascio]

Esa-Pekka has always been a class act.

[JMN]

I read on the London Philharmonic website over a year ago that Salonen was moving there to conduct the orchestra. What happened?

[MarK]

The name of the orchestra with which Maestro Salonen is associated right now is "Philharmonia Orchestra" (London Philharmonic is a different entity). It is based in London too and Esa-Pekka has been conducting it (including a decade as their Principal Guest Conductor) since September 1983. Currently, he is its Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor (since September 2008), which means that he conducts them for a total of a couple of months each year and has a leading role in their artistic decisions as well. In other words, the title means something that is just below the title of Music Director. The Philharmonia does not have a music director.

[Burt Worcester]

Class act? How so? First, he says he's leaving and slowly it plays out that he never really intended to go. This is a sabbatical. When he returns to LA, and he will, smart money would bet on him programming his own 'music' as well as those of the usual suspects he's trotted before you for the past seventeen or so years. Some of it paid for no doubt from the composition fund established in his name. Combine that with a sinecure for the sanctimonious Adams, classical music's Tartuffe, and it is clear that your Mr. Dudamel is a hugely talented figurehead who won't be allowed the reins of the orchestra.

What's sad is that a city and county strapped for cultural cash will continue to line the pockets of Salonen and Adams while playing the Dudamel card for donations.

[Ellis]

"Salonen's current focus is composing"
Quite frankly, I don't understand why the L.A. Times never, ever mentions that Salonen is now and has been principal conductor and Artistic Advisor for the Philharmonia Orchestra. It's on his web site. So why not ever in the LA Times?

[MarK]

Actually, so far Maestro Salonen is doing exactly what he is saying he would be. He is staying away from the LA Phil for about a year and a half and then he is planning to start coming back as a guest conductor for a couple of weeks each year. What's wrong with that? Yes, he will probably program his own pieces once in a while. Has there ever been any composer-conductor who did not perform his (there are no prominent females in this category) own music? Of course not, and there is nothing wrong with that either. Not everyone likes Esa-Pekka's music? Well, not everyone likes Berlioz, or Wagner, or Tchaikovsky, or...well, you get the idea. As for Maestro Dudamel, Burt Worcester is dead wrong here, because the reins of this orchestra are already, very firmly, in Gustavo's hugely talented hands.

[Burt Worcester]

"Yes, [Salonen] will probably program his own pieces once in a while."

Once in a while? He did far more than that when he was the official Music Director in LA and you should expect more of the same. By the way, there is plenty wrong with what Salonen and Adams do. They financially benefit when their works are performed - royalties are involved. So, there is a substantial amount of multiple-dipping. I wonder how soon before Salonen reluctantly, grudgingly, abashedly accepts a commission from the fund established in his name. And any festival within reach of Adams will have a work or five by him on it. Past performance does indicate future results.

By the way, MarK, Salonen nominally resigned from the MD-ship in LA because he wanted to focus on composition. Yet he seems to be taking on many new conducting assignments, including forays into opera. A more rational assessment would be that he can meet and exceed his LA salary by moving behind the scenes and superficially handing over the position to someone else. And, no, Mr. Dudamel does not now nor will he ever hold the power accorded to Salonen.

[MarK]

What makes you, Burt Worcester, so sure of your prediction about the LA Phil's new boss not having the power that his predecessor had? Right now Gustavo clearly has more of it than Esa-Pekka had in only his second month as the music director. There are good reasons to believe that in the near future this situation will develop naturally and soon he will have as much artistic "power" as he wants to have. But certainly not more than what is legally allowed to anyone.
Composers all over the world get royalties from their pieces being performed, and rightly so. And i am still waiting for Burt Worcester to name any composer-conductor who has never performed his own music.
There are several reasons Esa-Pekka left his LA Phil post, one of the main ones being his interest in devoting more time to composing. He is not taking any music director positions, and guest conducting requires much less of a time commitment. Another reason is that 19 years (he started his heavy involvement with the LA Phil in 1990 as the "designate") with the same orchestra is a very long time by the standards of recent history. It was time for both him and the orchestra to move on, and fortunately a very worthy successor was found and persuaded to come. That's all there is to it and there is nothing superficial about it.

[Burt Worcester]

"What makes you, Burt Worcester, so sure of your prediction about the LA Phil's new boss not having the power that his predecessor had? Right now Gustavo clearly has more of it than Esa-Pekka had in only his second month as the music director. "

It has been two-and-a-half years since Dudamel's announcement as your MD. In this inaugural season, you have him for a couple of events in 2009 and then he's out until April 2010, close to the end of your season. The programming shows little of his influence and the appointment of Adams to be a 'creative chair' and run festivals shows that Mr. Dudamel is either delegating his authority or is having it delegated for him.

"Composers all over the world get royalties from their pieces being performed, and rightly so."

Salonen programming himself is a clear conflict of interest. It is no different from a broker recommending investments in which he has an interest or a doctor prescribing a medication that results in a kickback. One would think that after the recent economic collapse that people would be more attuned to this sort of thing, especially when non-profit funds are involved.

"And i am still waiting for Burt Worcester to name any composer-conductor who has never performed his own music. "

Your point, not mine. And it is not relevant.

[MarK]

During the eight weeks of October-November 2009, Maestro Dudamel is conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 20 concerts (out of the total of 32 performed by the orchestra during that period) with seven different programs (out of the total of eleven). Calling this "a couple of events" is rather silly.
In any case, for the last several decades, the relative power of music directors has not been directly proportionate to the number of their concerts. Instead, the power they wield may probably be determined by how close the number of concerts they conduct is to the number of concerts they want to conduct. If anyone has any evidence proving that Gustavo wants to conduct far more (or, for that matter, far fewer) concerts with the LA Phil than he is in fact conducting, then this interesting information is still waiting to be shared.
He certainly is delegating some of his authority but which good boss doesn't? The new music programming at the LA Phil was run by Steven Stucky throughout Salonen's entire tenure, in spite of Esa-Pekka's obvious interest and exceptional knowledge in that area. There is simply a limit to what one person can and/or should do.
Since all composers-performers have been conducting and playing their own works for four centuries, then there is no reason for singling out Salonen as the major criminal for doing what all of his predecessors have always been doing and are continuing to do. He is in pretty good company, with everyone from Joseph Haydn in 1700s and Hector Berlioz in 1800s to Igor Stravinsky in 1900s and Thomas Ades in 2000s among the Most Wanted. That is the relevance of my point that was made in response to a comment above.

[Burt Worcester]

Your count of separate programs is charitable. Mr. Dudamel is in Los
Angeles for eight weeks of yourroughly thirty two week season,
including the one-off Hollywood Bowl concert. That's roughly 25% with a
four month gap from November to mid-April when the season is on its last
legs. If you think he's going to put his stamp on the orchestra, the
programming in that time, or the much ballyhooed youth programs, more
power to you. Delegation of responsibility is the hallmark of a good
leader no doubt. This is a special case of someone who has all the
makings of one but who is not around long enough to show he has what it
takes. Yes, he can. But, will he?

Regarding Salonen and your excuses for him, so be it. What Stravinsky
and Berlioz did is beside the point. Ades writes and conducts his own
bad music but he isn't holding the reins of the programming. Salonen
was your MD and had a major role in deciding what got played and what
did not. He programmed his own music which means that someone else's
music did not get performed. And when he does it repeatedly, when
royalties are involved, and when it is public or semi-public funds he is
multiply dipping. When the same circle of living compositional jerks
shows up time and again on the programs and in the positions of
authority, there should be more attention paid. Conflict. Of. Interest.

[MarK]

Starting next season, Gustavo will be spending more time in LA - about the same amount of time as any other major music director spends with his or her orchestra these days, so that is not an issue anymore.
The conflict is more of taste than of interest. Every composer thinks that his or her music is worthy of being performed - otherwise they would not keep writing it - and so they do perform it when they have a chance, whether they are guest conductors or music directors. A couple of examples of the latter that immediately come to mind are Mahler and Bernstein with the NY Phil. Not everyone agrees that every note their orchestras perform is worthy, whether it is their own or somebody else's music, but this is a question of taste and preference. The programming choices, no matter what they are, can never please everyone.