"The Anti-Maestro," my big article on Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, appears in this week's issue of The New Yorker. Like most longer pieces in the magazine, it is not available online. (Here is where I ritualistically mention that a subscription to this very fine publication is not a bad deal.) Toward the end there's a section describing how the orchestra went about picking as its next music director the extraordinary young Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel (pictured above, with Salonen in his scandalous cerulean jacket). Later in the week I'll have a follow-up piece on Salonen's recordings on the New Yorker website; here's a discography, corrections and additions to which would be welcome. Here's also a link to my 1994 NY Times piece on Salonen. The LA Phil is headed New York's way; next Sunday at Lincoln Center the orchestra will perform Salonen's Helix alongside the Ravel Concerto for the Left Hand (with Jean-Yves Thibaudet) and music from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, and on May 2 they'll do two performances of the epic Tristan Project — unfortunately coinciding with the debut performances of Mark Morris's Orfeo ed Euridice at the Met and Björk's first shows in New York — together with a Fleming Abend. Tomorrow night, Miller Theatre augments the Nordic atmosphere by hosting Present Music from Milwaukee in a program of the complexly layered, wildly entertaining music of Kimmo Hakola. Disney Hall, meanwhile, will be loaned out on Wednesday night to some kind of televised singing competition.
