The Rapid Rise in Salonen’s Career

Propelled by the classic Big Break, Esa-Pekka Salonen’s career has been in meteoric ascendence during the last half-decade. Only 31, the Finnish conductor is expected to take the artistic helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic with an impressive--if often arcane--list of podium assignments and a portfolio of recordings and compositions.

Born in Helsinki, Salonen studied French horn and composition at the Sibelius Academy there from 1973 to 1977. He continued his studies in Italy until 1981, when he returned to Finland. Having made his debut with the Finnish Radio Symphony in 1979, he became a guest conductor for the 1981-82 season at the Finnish National Opera.

At that point he considered himself basically a composer. His catalogue lists 14 works through 1982, from “Aubades” for flute, soprano and strings in 1977 to “YTA 1” for amplified alto flute, which was performed here by Janet Ferguson on a Philharmonic New Music Group concert in February, 1987.

Prior to his U.S. debut in Los Angeles in November, 1984, he told The Times:

“I studied composition and analysis primarily. My thinking was to take conducting as a second subject, something useful for a composer to know. But then came the calls to Sweden, then Norway and Denmark, then Germany, then England. I simply noticed after a while that I was a full-time conductor.”

The Big Break came when he replaced Michael Tilson Thomas, leading the London Philharmonia Orchestra in Mahler’s Third Symphony, in September, 1983. His success had immediate repercussions for Los Angeles.

Marvin Schofer, now head of his own artist management firm but then with ICM Artists, was sent from New York to London for the second performance on the urgent suggestion of a British manager. Backstage afterward, Schofer found among the clustering managers Ernest Fleischmann, executive vice president of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

“The word just spread. He (Salonen) had breakfast the next morning with Fleischmann and was immediately invited to Los Angeles and had lunch with me and was immediately offered management,” Schofer says. “For all I know, he had dinner with someone who offered him all of Europe.”

The invitation to Los Angeles was honored in 1984, with a program that listed Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony, the G-major Piano Concerto of Ravel with soloist Alexander Toradze, and the West Coast premiere of Lutoslawksi’s Third Symphony.

Salonen made his Hollywood Bowl debut the next summer. He returned for three weeks of concerts at the Music Center in 1985, two weeks in 1987 and one week in 1988.

Salonen is scheduled to lead the L.A. Philharmonic in only one program next season. He will conduct Beethoven’s First Symphony and Stravinsky’s “Oedipus Rex” on four concerts begining Nov. 30.

Salonen’s most recently released recording is also devoted to Stravinsky, a pairing of “Firebird” and “Jeu de Cartes” for the Philharmonia Orchestra. He has released at least 14 discs; since June 1985 exclusively for CBS Masterworks.

In addition to the Philharmonia, he has recorded with the Swedish Radio Symphony (to which he was appointed principal conductor in 1984), the Oslo Philharmonic (principal guest conductor since 1984), the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta, the Stockholm Sinfonietta and the New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra.

Salonen’s successful performance of the Lutoslawksi Third here with the Philharmonic was repeated on disc, coupled with Lutoslawksi’s “Les Espaces du Sommeil.” That recording won numerous prizes, including a Gramophone award for Best Contemporary Recording and a Grammy.

Times staff writer Barbara Isenberg contributed to this story.