Esa-Pekka Salonen

This is the second piano concerto of Shostakovich and is an uncharacteristically cheery work, written to be accessible to young pianists.

Here it is performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen with piano soloist Yefim Bronfman.

[classical music]

[classical music][on-hold music]

[on-hold music][on-hold music]

[on-hold music]Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major by Dmitri Shostakovich.

Yefim Bronfman was the piano soloist, and Esa-Pekka Salonen led the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Support for WVIK Quad Cities NPR comes from the Regional Development Authority, distributing funds from the Rhythm City Casino Resort to help make the Quad Cities a more vibrant and inclusive community.

The county Had built a parking lot and I was told some people were, some of the county supervisors were even talking about, let's see if we can find a hotel to put on there because the fundraising had stalled.

Neither the orchestra nor the community had really yet embraced what Esa-Pekka Salonen's vision was.

But there was a persistence that happened and people started to recognize this and people started to realize that Disney Hall actually would be worth building.

It wasn't some crazy thing out there.

[opera music] Opera takes us right back into the modern age again.

Uh, Saariaho, who obviously very sadly died not that long ago, her opera Adriana Mater, and this is with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, and soloists led by Fleur Barron, who, who takes the, the lead role within this opera.

Gavin, do you want to tell us what you made of this?

So I-- it-- not being, I mean, talking from the other side of the world, but so I think it's fairly clear that Esa-Pekka Salonen has, uh, well, firstly bringing his, uh, passion for this music and his insights into it, uh, uh, to play into t- his relationship, his close relationship with this orchestra, um, and getting everybody on board in a way that it, it just...

Everything clicks.

Everything fits together.

You, you really feel that you're in it, that you're part of it.

Mm.

Corigliano's music required a virtuoso violin part, and in the film this is supplied by the musician Joshua Bell.

Here he is with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra with the section Moritz Discovers the Red Violin from John Corigliano's music for the film The Red Violin.

Thanks again for listening.

and so it's just fantastic music but we haven't I think we haven't been proud enough of it and this is something we want to do together show the world what we have And then it's new music.

I think Esa-Pekka Salonen was in Bergen during the Bergen International Festival this May, and he had a very interesting panel discussion And one of the things he said was that globally he's worried about composers choosing not to compose for symphony orchestra because the sort of the chances of having your piece performed and the chances of getting to know the symphony orchestra as a composer, these chances are just so slim.

The bar is set so high, or the keyhole is so narrow, or however you want to put it.

And composing takes a lot of time and effort, and it's a very lonely process.