Prepping for L.A.’s Podium : Fine-Tuning the Philharmonic for Salonen’s ’92 Takeover

Although it has been only 18 months since Andre Previn abruptly resigned as music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, an orchestra for 1992--Esa-Pekka Salonen’s orchestra--is already taking shape.

Some of the signs of change are overt, as in the announcement of a whole new performing-recording unit, the reaching of agreement between management and players on a new contract which will place the Philharmonic at the fore of U.S. orchestras in size and salary, and trends in programming.

Other changes are more subtle. Heiichiro Ohyama’s name has quietly disappeared from the masthead as assistant conductor (his contract was not renewed). Meanwhile, Previn’s other assistant, David Alan Miller, has been promoted to associate conductor (his contract is for two years), leaving Salonen a clean slate for an assistant of his own choice when his term as music director begins in 1992.

Stephen Stucky’s period as composer-in-residence also ends with this season, and there are strong indications from within the Philharmonic that another change in the artistic leadership will be announced shortly.

The Philharmonic began the season by launching the Carnegie Hall centennial celebrations in New York. The home season then opened with three weeks of Previn programs--with associate conductor David Alan Miller replacing Previn on the podium last week--which offer some suggestive contrasts with the Salonen program on tap tonight, including a new piece that was first considered in Previn’s term but only became a firm commitment under Salonen.

“I like combining things that can be contrasting or surprising. There will be some fairly wild combinations in my first season. I believe in combining old and new works--I’m not a great believer in barriers between eras and styles.”

In that regard, Salonen actually considers the program tonight, surrounding some early Sibelius and a new Finnish piece with standards of French Impressionism, to be fairly conservative. The tie that binds is in fact Kaija Saariaho’s new work, “Du Cristal.”

“It is kind of in between, a link from the Impressionists to Sibelius,” Salonen says. “It is a colorist piece, but it’s not really neo-anything.”

“The piece was originally commissioned by the Helsinki Festival,” said Saariaho. “I came to discuss it with my publishers, who wanted to get me a big-figure fee, so they suggested a joint commission to Mr. Previn and Mr. (Ernest) Fleischmann (Philharmonic managing director).”

The Philharmonic expressed interest in the work, which was given its world premiere by Salonen on Sept. 5, at the Helsinki Festival. But “the problem was always: Who would conduct? It was quite obvious that it (“Du Cristal”) was not Previn repertory,” Saariaho said.

That problem was readily resolved by the advent of Salonen, a longtime acquaintance of the 38-year-old composer.

“Du Cristal” is Saariaho’s first piece for large orchestra. She works slowly, and on only one piece at a time. “It (“Du Cristal”) has been in my mind for a long time,” the composer said. “The piece must exist in my mind before I can write it.”

Although Saariaho is deeply interested in using computers and electronics in music, “Du Cristal” only employs a single synthesizer in the orchestra. It has a partner piece, “A la Fumee,” which will feature the amplified and electronically processed sounds of cello and alto flute soloists.

In both cases the titles, “From Crystal . . . Into Smoke,” suggest “the different ways a material can exist, such as water becoming steam,” according to the composer. This follows her interest in the possibilities of musical transformations, which suffuse “Du Cristal.”

The piece also features some innovative string techniques, involving trills between normal notes and harmonics, and bow pressure, and Saariaho is attending rehearsals to ensure that those demands are understood. She is also listening carefully to balances, because “all the time there are three layers of things going on.”

Salonen, however, said we will not be awash in Finnish music during his tenure. “I don’t see my role in L.A. as an ambassador for Scandinavian music. Of course, I will program music that I know, by composers I know, but the emphasis is going to be on American music, because I see that as a basic responsibility.”

The Philharmonic has already forged a respectable reputation for programming American music under Previn, as represented by the program last week, featuring Stucky’s “Angelus” and William Schuman’s Third Symphony, both works that Previn and the orchestra offered to Carnegie Hall audiences in September.

The repertory which Salonen believes should be strengthened in the Philharmonic programming may be a surprise, though not to those who have studied his Philharmonic agendas since his debut with the orchestra in 1984.

“I think there are certain areas which I would like to emphasize more--Haydn, Mozart, all the Classical composers,” Salonen, 34, said. “I don’t believe in the total reconstruction of a style. Our brain is different, we hear things differently, so I’m not deeply worried about (period) instruments.”

The organization behind Salonen’s vision for the orchestra seems healthier than ever. Compared to the major Eastern orchestras, the Philharmonic has a relatively small endowment, and relies instead on revenue from Hollywood Bowl, something explicit in the formation of the new Hollywood Bowl Orchestra.

Under Fleischmann, the Philharmonic has parlayed the Hollywood Bowl into a major asset, keeping a budget now approaching $30 million firmly in the black. This financial muscle is reflected in the new musicians’ contract, which has been approved by the orchestra players, though official signing is still a few weeks away, according to trumpeter Boyde Hood, chairman of the Orchestra Committee.

The three-year contract provides for a total 18% increase, bringing the base weekly wage to $1,240 for the 1992-93 season. If other orchestras do not boost their scale in the interim, that will leave the Philharmonic in a virtual tie with the Philadelphia Orchestra as the highest paid in the country. With provisions for four additional string players, it will also make the Philharmonic the largest orchestra in the nation.

“It’s kind of a validating process,” Hood says, “and a vote of confidence from the (Philharmonic) Assn., that they think we are one of the top orchestras in the country.”

The Philharmonic that Esa-Pekka Salonen will lead into the planned Disney Hall is clearly an empire in the making--two orchestras now, the Philharmonic Chamber Music Society (six concerts at Gindi Auditorium), the Green Umbrella new music concerts (seven concerts at the Japan America Theatre)--embodying much of the “community of musicians” concept espoused by Fleischmann two years ago. As such, it may become a model for the orchestras of the new century.