Three Guesses: He’s Finnish, a Conductor . . . : Music: No, the answer isn’t Esa-Pekka Salonen, it’s his pal Jukka-Pekka Saraste. He makes his L.A. Philharmonic debut tonight.

F inlandization.

It is a term coined in the Cold War, a name given to the politics of appeasement and conciliation pursued by Finland when the Soviet Union lurked next door. It’s best not to make waves when your neighbors are Red.

Things change and the term recedes into the remote past. Unless you’re a Finnish musician. Then, with a twist, it could be used to describe what is happening in classical music these days, a Finlandization, an invasion of Finns onto the international music scene so vigorous and on such a scale that it seems as if they are making up for lost time.

Names such as conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Paavo Berglund and Okko Kamu, pianist Olli Mustonen, and composers Aulis Sallinen, Kaija Saariaho, Magnus Lindberg, as well as groups such as the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Orchestra, the Finnish National Opera and the Helsinki Philharmonic are increasingly visible participants in classical music.

Jukka-Pekka Saraste, 37, is another such name, and one very tired Finn. Just in on a plane from Toronto Monday night, where he has recently been appointed the Toronto Symphony’s music director, straight from a party at the Finnish consul general’s house in Bel-Air, he looks rumpled and droopy-eyed slouched on a couch in Esa-Pekka Salonen’s deserted house, absent-mindedly toying with a stuffed bear left there, sipping espresso that didn’t seem to be doing its job, and slowly, effortfully answering a reporter’s questions. He makes his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut guest conducting in concerts tonight, Saturday and Sunday.

Saraste seems as puzzled as anyone about the rise of Finns in classical music. “It just happens that we suddenly have a very interesting group of young people that are very talented in understanding music quite deeply, without any signs of schooling or just trained taste. I think that we had a very good open situation for us when we started--my generation, I mean. We got a lot of encouragement by elderly colleagues, a lot of opportunities and not too-stiff schooling. So from the very beginning we were individuals.”

His close friendship with Salonen--two years Saraste’s junior--goes back to their student days when they met in contemporary music circles. They later went on to co-found Avanti!, a chamber orchestra devoted to new music, especially to that of such young Finnish composers as Lindberg and Saariaho.

Three weeks ago, much to Saraste’s surprise, Saraste found himself sharing a dressing room with Salonen in London--Saraste was stepping in on short notice for the ailing Klaus Tennstedt with the London Philharmonic, Salonen was conducting the Philharmonia. They got to discussing Saraste’s new appointment in Toronto, effective September, 1994. “We both thought North America is a good place for both of us,” Saraste said, a more fertile climate than Europe in which to pursue their schemes for programming new music.

“My personal involvement in contemporary music is not as wide as (Salonen’s). I will simply start in (Toronto) by doing the so-called ‘classics’ of contemporary music,” he said, and will only perform new works that strongly move him, that “physically” involve him. “If I can’t put my signature on something, I can’t expect the audience to automatically find the values of it.” But Saraste seems well aware of the resistance he might meet, and doesn’t expect unanimous approval when he performs the new music--Schoenberg, Berg, Lindberg, Dutilleux--so obviously important to him.

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The former principal conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Saraste retains his leadership of the Finnish Radio Orchestra, an ensemble with which he has recorded the complete Sibelius symphonies for RCA. His serious demeanor recalls typical descriptions of dour Finns, but he denies the appositeness of them in his case. “I am serious but quite passionate. I don’t consider myself a very typical Finn, actually. Maybe a (good) description of a Finn would (be that) they tend to be very slow to show their emotions, but when they show them they can be very, very passionate. I don’t feel like I’m particularly slow in any way.” He admits that he is quick to anger with an orchestra.

That quickness surfaces in his aggressive rehearsal style; he believes in diving right in. “I think I require quite a big intensity (from an orchestra) at the very first moment, and sometimes it creates a little resistance. I think that I would rather argue with individuals than let them be relaxed.”

Saraste believes that a dangerous complacency, a loss of vitality has characterized most classical music performance over the past 30 years. “I feel that the institution of repeating Brahms and Tchaikovsky is not enough anymore. Now there is a big, big need to find a freshness, find a style again to play even those greatest hits.” The authentic performance movement has given classical music a much-needed shot in the arm, he says, but he also cites Bruno Walter and Arturo Toscanini as conductors with particularly strong influences on his own style.

Mention of his debut program with the Philharmonic this week--Mozart’s Piano Concerto, K. 488, with Jasminka Stancul as soloist, and Mahler’s Sixth Symphony--animates the conductor for the first time. It was listening to Mozart, at age 6, that first won him over to classical music. And he thinks Mahler’s Sixth “is one of the strongest pieces I’ve ever conducted and I always have an extremely great excitement to do that piece. My heart starts beating in a very intense way. When I’m reading the score it’s like I can’t understand how it is possible to create such drive in a symphony.”

And with that, the conquering Finn was off to bed.