Faces to Watch in ’92 : These are the people Calendar’s critics and writers think you’ll be hearing about in 1992. In some cases, they’re familiar people who will experience a transitional year. Some are newcomers who could have a breakthrough year. : ESA-PEKKA SALONEN

Esa-Pekka Salonen won’t officially become music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic until Oct. 8, when he opens the 1992-93 season at the Music Center. In the meantime, he will make his presence--and priorities--felt with three programs in February, followed by summer concerts at the Hollywood that will serve as previews and/or rehearsals for his stint with our orchestra at the Salzburg Festival. Salonen’s timing is especially fortuitous because the Philharmonic has lacked the stabilizing influence and potential inspiration of a resident maestro since Andre Previn’s abrupt departure in 1989. With his eclectic sympathies, flashy presence and apparently endless vitality, Salonen may be just the man, at 33, to revitalize the atmosphere on both sides of the proscenium at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Whether he succeeds in his noble mission to enlarge and modernize our symphonic repertory remains, of course, to be heard.