| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 7-Dec-2012 Walt Disney Concert Hall | Lutosławski centenary: The shadows of the night with the LA Phil |
 The haze of the surreal, somnambulistic nightscape of Witold Lutosławski’s Les espaces du sommeil cast its strange pall over the expanse of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s December 7 concert at Walt Disney Hall with Esa-Pekka Salonen at the podium. It was appropriate – this was the second concert celebrating the centenary of the Polish composer’s birth – but it also seemed to react in unexpected ways that could be jarring, though no less absorbing.
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| 4-Dec-2012 Walt Disney Concert Hall | Lutosławski and his influences: with the LA Phil New Music Group |
 At first hearing the idea of the music of Witold Lutosławski as the centerpiece of a Los Angeles Philharmonic “Green Umbrella” concert made a strangely incongruous impression. Music new or difficult is the usual fare of such a program. Lutosławski, who would have turned 100 next year (consider that the late Elliott Carter was composing up until his 104th year!), is neither new nor very “difficult” – whatever that may mean – for the most part. With nearly 20 years passing since the composer’s death, it would be difficult to argue a case for the “newness” of his music.Read full review... | |
| 13-Jul-2012 University of Maryland: Clarice Smith PAC: Gildenhorn Recital Hall | Gloria Cheng: Contemporary piano music at the University of Maryland |
 Gloria Cheng is an uncommon artist. A specialist in contemporary piano literature, she has made a career championing new music and performing programs of adventurous (which is to say, esoteric) works. She is a frequent collaborator with some of the leading lights of contemporary music, including Pierre Boulez and Esa-Pekka Salonen. In this recital on Friday at the University of Maryland’s Gildenhorn Recital Hall, Cheng offered an intellectually challenging and yet emotionally engaging evening of contemporary music from ten different composers.
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| 29-Mar-2012 Kimmel Center for Performing Arts, Verizon Hall | Esa-Pekka Salonen with the Philadelphia Orchestra |
 When a guest conductor arrives for a few concerts with an orchestra, he or she doesn’t have very much time to shape his or her interpretation. On some occasions the orchestra successfully adopts the visitor’s style; on others they just play like they always do. In Esa-Pekka Salonen’s concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra last night, the program of Debussy, Bartók, and the Finnish conductor’s own Violin Concerto was more the maestro’s style (cool modernist) than the orchestra’s (rather conservative and Romantic). The playing, however, was mostly typically Philadelphia.Read full review... | |
