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Esa-Pekka Salonen

Esa-Pekka Salonen Books

Conductor

Esa-Pekka Salonen is a prominent Finnish conductor recognized for his international contributions to classical music. Born on June 30, 1958, he has been a leading figure in orchestral conducting, serving as principal conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, among others. Salonen's innovative approach to music has earned him numerous accolades, including the Polar Music Prize and the Praemium Imperiale.

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Related Quotes

“In Europe, there is so much tradition, and everyone has established ideas as to what art should be and what it has always been.”

Should Art Ideas Europe Tradition

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Music has just as much to do with movement and body as it does soul and intellect.”

Doe Soul Body Movement Intellect

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“The underlying process in Northern music tends to be slower and continuous, whatever's happening on the surface; in Southern music the underlying process is always faster.”

Process Happenings Surface Faster Southern

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“The music I turn out these days is the kind of music I want to hear myself.”

Want Kind Turns These Days

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Pulse as an active means of expression, Stravinsky and Beethoven are the two masters of that.”

Mean Two Expression Masters Active Pulse Stravinsky Two Masters

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Stravinsky is masterly: his harmony is conceived so precisely that it can only be the way it is.”

Way Harmony Stravinsky

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“There is such a suspicion in today's world of people who do more than one thing, who aren't specialized.”

People World Today One Thing Suspicion Today's World

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“There is more openness in LA to possibilities than on the East Coast of America. There is a pioneering spirit there that stems from the reason people went out there in the first place-to find something new.”

People Firsts Reason America Spirit Possibility East Something New Openness Stem Coast East Coast Pioneering Pioneering Spirit

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Conducting was just something that happened by fluke.”

Happened Conducting Flukes

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I was starting a group of musicians and we had a group of young composers in Finland back in the '70s, and the real conductors, the professional conductors at the time were not interested in our stuff.”

Real Young Stuff Groups Musician Starting Composer Not Interested Conductor Finland

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I started conducting lessons and I realized that this is actually something I like doing.”

Lessons I Realized Conducting

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Conducting is intensely social. You work with a hundred people every day. You collaborate, you try to focus their thoughts, you try to give them a concept, you try to inspire them, and it's actually exhausting.”

People Giving Trying Social Focus Inspire Hundred Concepts Exhausting Conducting

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“There's so much energy exchange [in conduction], so you get back a lot, of course, but you also have to give a lot. It's kind of high-energy thing.”

Giving Kind Courses Energy Get Back High Energy

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I think if you would like to describe composing as an act with one word, "slow" would be the word.”

Ifs Thinking Would Be One Word Composing

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Sometimes you spend nine months, 10 months, a year writing a piece that you will hear two years later or something like that, and you never see anybody. It's a very different sort of metabolic.”

Writing Years Two Different Sometimes Pieces Months Nine Two Years Nine Months

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“If we always thought like that, why would we study physics, why would we think of cosmology, why would we do any kind of research? Because we know already so much that there is no one person who can contain all that information.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Kind Persons Study Information Research Physics Cosmology

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“It would be very tempting to say that why paint because we have Michelangelo, we have Leonardo [Da Vinci], we have all these guys. Why waste your time, because most likely you're not going to be on that level anyway.”

Would Be Guy Levels Waste Paint Tempting Leonardo

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“When an artist works today or whenever, it's not about creating immortal masterpieces, because that's the one thing we don't decide ourselves.”

Today Artist One Thing Creating Immortal Masterpiece

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“We need new art. Old art cannot do that. It can do lots of other things, and of course humanity hasn't changed that much in the last thousand or two thousand years.So that the old Greek dramas are still at the very heart, core, of human experience, but still we need new stuff.”

Needs Years Humans Heart Art Stills Two Lasts Humanity Courses Stuff Can Do Changed Drama Thousand Core Greek Thousand Years Human Experience New Stuff Old Greek Greek Drama

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I actually don't like this term, "classic." It's wrong, but we don't have a better word at the moment.”

Moments Term Classic

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Our audience, it has been a more difficult process for classical music audiences around the world, and I'm not completely certain why.”

World Has Beens Certain Process Difficult Audience Around The World Classical Music

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“If you think of the history, in the days of Brahms and Beethoven and all these guys, almost every concert was a new music concert. To play something old was really an exception.”

Ifs Thinking Play Guy Exception Concerts New Music Brahms

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Classic music somehow changed, and it changed between the first and the second world wars, and somehow what happened was that the hero that had been the composer, the hero now was the performer, and especially the conductor.”

World Firsts War Happened Changed Hero Classic War Of The Worlds Performers Composer Second World War Conductor Classic Music

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“There was this kind of mildly annoying mythology about conductor Like biker should riding a Harley-Davidson on an LP cover, and wearing a sort of a leather suit.”

Should Kind Mythology Suits Annoying Riding Leather Conductor Bikers Harley Harley Davidson

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Somehow, conductor as this superhuman conduit between the masters and the masterpieces and the immortals.”

Masters Masterpiece Conductor Superhuman

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“The sort of commercial parameters of classical music changed after the [World War II] , and the whole industry became more backward-looking.”

World War Whole Changed Industry War Of The Worlds World War Ii World War I Classical Music Parameters

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Of course, if you think of a European or American household in the '50s, so what were the things that when people started climbing up the ladder, what did they buy? A fridge, a TV, I think piano was the number three item in say '53 or '54.”

People Ifs Thinking Three Courses Numbers Tvs Piano Climbing Household Items Ladders Fridges Climbing Up Number Three Climbing Up The Ladder

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“The classical music industry, has been an industry of covers. So we do covers, and if I compare this with the rock and pop side, what is the most exciting event?”

Ifs Has Beens Sides Rocks Events Industry Exciting Pops Compare Classical Music Music Industry

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Our industry [classic music] has kind of retarded into this kind of endless cover-producing thing, and it's a pity.”

Kind Industry Endless Pity Classic Retarded Classic Music

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Of course performing talent, that's clear. Maybe this is not so well-known among young people who are interested in music, who are talented in music, but they're trying to figure out how to go about it.”

People Trying Wells Young Courses Known Clear Talent Figures Performing Well Known

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I think we still do have a PR problem in the sense that these institutions portray themselves quite often as a museum without the contemporary wing. For a young cutting-edge person, why would you get into that sort of business, which is very clearly geared towards dead or almost dead people?”

People Thinking Persons Stills Problem Young Cutting Institutions Wings Edges Contemporary Museums Cutting Edge Dead People

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Every orchestra I know, every opera house I know, is desperately looking around trying to find new talent, new composing talent, supporting young composers, supporting new ideas, supporting new ways of getting the message across.”

Knows Way Trying Ideas Young House Talent Messages Opera Composer New Ways New Ideas Orchestra Composing Opera House New Talent

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I think we are in the process of getting the word out, and we haven't done very well yet. But we are trying.”

Thinking Trying Wells Done Process Havens

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“The biggest difference between U.S and most European big cities is that in a place like London, for instance, there are five orchestras, and there's a bloody competition between these five orchestras.”

Bigs Differences Cities Five Competition London Instance Bloody Orchestra Big Cities

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I like this idea of identification with the local team. I think it's great. That's what an orchestra should be. It's an orchestra for its hometown, and it serves the people.”

People Thinking Should Ideas Team Locals Orchestra Identification Hometown

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“There is something very special about this part of the world [U.S], which is the openness and the curiosity and the lack of prejudice and the lack of generally accepted norms as to what art should be and how an artist's career should go and all that.”

World Should Art Artist Careers Special Prejudice Curiosity Accepted Openness Norm

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Lots of really interesting people move to U.S and decide to work here, because of this whole attitude and openness. I'm absolutely convinced that this is just the beginning. In a couple decades we will see an even more dramatic change.”

People Whole Moving Interesting Attitude Couple Convinced Decades Dramatic Openness Really Interesting Dramatic Change

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I'm composing more than before. I'm cutting down on conducting.”

Cutting Composing Conducting Cutting Down

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I'm trying to conduct only five months a year, and the rest will be composing time. I'm trying to spend as much as I can out of those months here in L.A., because for creative work, this is a fantastic place.”

Trying Years I Can Creative Five Months Fantastic Composing Creative Work

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I feel that this is my artistic home, and I'm very happy to be a California artist together with many others who are not from here originally but who decided to make this the center of their activities. There's something about that that I find very inspiring and satisfying.”

Feels Home Together Artist Activity Decided Artistic California Satisfying Very Happy Very Inspiring

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“If somebody had told me when I was starting composition in Helsinki in the '70s that I would end up in L.A. and to describe that journey, those 17 years with the philharmonic and building the hall and this and that, I would have said, "This is a fairy tale of the first order."”

Ifs Years Firsts Said Ends Order Journey Building Starting Tales Fairy Halls Fairy Tale Composition Helsinki

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“The philharmonic became such a journey and adventure in my life, and a deeply satisfying thing.”

Journey Adventure Satisfying

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Coming from a sort of very rigid European type of training to this culture which is just a little more open - a lot more open, and kind of curious, and asking different sorts of questions.Because the problem for me was that the European modernist movement in the '70s was all about right or wrong. Some things were right and you were dealing with the truth, as it were, and then some things were wrong and therefore not allowed.”

Kind Littles Different Problem Culture Movement Type Training Asking Curious

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I think truth as an idea should be left to the philosophers and perhaps religious leaders and politicians, and professional people who deal with that idea.”

People Thinking Should Ideas Left Religious Deals Leader Politician Philosopher Religious Leaders

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“I realized that the European dogma is not necessarily the only way to look at things.”

Way Looks I Realized Dogma

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“We're dealing with music that is being played by traditional instruments in a specifically built building called a concert hall. But classical is not - the reference is wrong, because classical on one hand refers to one period in musical history, which is Mozart, Hayden, Beethoven, which is a fine period in musical history, but it was a while ago.On the other hand, it sort of alludes to some kind of "class," which A, is not true; B, is kind of detrimental to the whole idea. Because the point is that this music is available and it's actually relatively reasonably priced.”

Kind Ideas Whole Hands Class Building Fine Periods Music Is Built Instruments Musical Available Traditional Halls Concerts Detrimental Being Played

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“We're not talking about an elite art form from the price point of view. We have a building in L.A. that is incredibly open, exciting, inviting, and all that, and there's no reason for this music not to be part of everybody's everyday life.”

Art Reason Form Views Talking Building Exciting Everyday Point Of View No Reason Elites Everyday Life Not Talking Inviting

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“If I were in a position to announce a public competition to coin a new word, I would do so right now.”

Ifs Position Right Now Competition Coins New Words

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“The Royal Festival Hall in London is nice; people hang out there. I think this inviting, non-exclusive character is very important.”

People Thinking Important Character Nice London Halls Hanging Out Royal Festivals Exclusive Inviting Nice People

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

“Orphei Drängar possesses a combination of power, energy, and culture. Joy of discovery combined with professional technical and musical prowess.”

Joy Culture Energy Discovery Musical Combination Drs Prowess

Author:Esa-Pekka Salonen

About the Author

Born: June 30, 1958
Known for: Conductor
Quotes: 77

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People Ifs Thinking Conducting Kind Way Ideas Courses Halls Orchestra

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