Salonen’s Recordings: Taste of the Future?

If the picture emerging of Esa-Pekka Salonen from his recent recordings is accurate, our future looks bright indeed--both in terms of quality of performance and the promise of fresh, attractive repertory.

Salonen, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s music director-designate, has shown his qualifications as a Stravinsky interpreter in local concerts and with a growing catalogue of Sony recordings, notably one in which he joins pianist Paul Crossley and the London Sinfonietta in a bracing program featuring the undervalued concerto for piano and winds (45797).

The precision and drive that informed those readings is complemented by lyric warmth in the complete “Pulcinella,” Stravinsky’s 1920 updating of 18th-Century Italian tunes (Sony 45965). Its tricky vocal solos are skillfully handled by Yvonne Kenny, John Aler and John Tomlinson. Here, as elsewhere in this generous Stravinsky program, execution by the London Sinfonietta is exemplary.

And what a satisfying, witty program it is, including as well the cheeky “Ragtime,” the edgy Octet for winds and the snide barnyard fable “Renard,” in which Aler heads the strong vocal ensemble.

The composer’s supercool side is represented by the “Apollo” ballet score, handsomely set forth by Salonen and the Stockholm Chamber Orchestra (Sony 46667). But the centerpiece of this second new Stravinsky disc is the Concerto in D for string orchestra, delivered with ferocious rhythmic intensity and breathtaking accuracy by the Swedish players.

Also included is the Cantata (1952), stark, at-times ill-fitting settings of anonymous 15th-Century English lyrics.

Salonen’s reading is, however, so alert and shapely that the case for the innately off-putting score is argued more persuasively than might have been thought possible. Credit the conductor’s collaborators as well, particularly the sweet-voiced, textually aware Kenny.

With the recent coupling (Sony 46500) of the Third (“Sinfonia Espansiva”) and Sixth (“Sinfonia Semplice”) Salonen and the Swedish Radio Symphony complete their traversal of Carl Nielsen’s six symphonies.

Without claiming long experience of the subject, this listener--a relatively recent convert to the Danish composer’s elusive idiom--nonetheless found Salonen a fussy interpreter in the previous segments, pulling tempos and rhythms about, failing to follow or project the flow of the music.

But here and now, particularly in the strikingly vital and original Sixth Symphony, Salonen not only maintains the flow but projects the score’s quirky humor, its jagged edges and prismatic facets.

The exquisitely weird bubblings and squeakings--as from some vast, sinister primordial stew--of the first two movements showcase the ability to clarify line and detail that may be among Salonen’s most pertinent gifts as an interpreter. And the rude, wind-breaking jests of the finale are presented with a young man’s appreciation for the antic mood and offbeat inflection that would seem to set Salonen’s crisp leadership apart.

Also received, a pair of CDs devoted to Swedish music, again with Salonen and the Stockholm Radio Symphony, the orchestra of which our designated heavy hitter has been principal conductor since 1985.

One (Musica Sveciae 626) presents would-be lushly melodic works--”Serenade,” “Midwinter” and “Chitra”--by the late-Romantic Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927), whose tunes seem flat and unengaging.

There is more nourishment and pleasure to be gained from music by Franz Berwald (1796-1868), who is represented by his Third (“Sinfonie Singuliere”) and Fourth (“Naive”) symphonies (Musica Sveciae 531).

Berwald’s cosmopolitan scores--Beethoven and Weber, perhaps Mendelssohn are detectable but not overpowering influences--feature brightly imaginative orchestration and lively rhythms that propel brief, often unexpectedly harmonized melodic fragments which have a way of wandering into distant keys.

Here, again, is repertory--the Third impresses as the stronger of the two symphonies--that would be a welcome and distinguishing ingredient of Salonen’s tenure with our orchestra.

Important note: The Stockholm-based Musica Sveciae label has only recently completed arrangements for American distribution (through Oregon-based Allegro Imports). It is therefore likely to be a month or more before its recordings are available locally.