Evening Music

When LA Met Salonen

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Since taking over the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1992, Finnish composer and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen has transformed it into a thriving and popular institution, attracting his share of Hollywood-style buzz in the process. Tonight the charismatic composer conducts homage to his adopted hometown with "LA Variations."

LA Variations

Salonen's "LA Variations" was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1997. The piece is Salonen's tribute not only to the orchestra but also to Jean Sibelius, a fellow Finn whose musical influences are heard throughout. "LA Variations" is not a traditional theme and variations, but rather an examination and expansion of two thematic hexachords. Each of the work's twenty sections evinces a distinctive character of its own.

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