Salonen60

In summer 1979, a number of Finnish composers and musicians attended a summer course in Siena, Italy. Three of them hit on an idea for a practical joke, and this led to a grand swindle that prompted hilarity on the music scene and had many authoritative figures ending up with egg on their face. The hoax was masterminded by three composers: Eero Hämeenniemi, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Magnus Lindberg. Both of the latter turned 60 in June 2018.

The Helsinki summer season culminates with the Helsinki Festival, a longstanding multi-arts festival attracting a fairly established culture-loving crowd. The Festival’s overall multi-disciplinary approach is also present at the individual event level. This summer’s concerts pair music with dance, film and immersive theatre expression.

The music of Esa-Pekka Salonen is like top design. It is controlled, streamlined, intelligent and functional – a pleasure, in other words...

Paavo Berglund, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Osmo Vänskä, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Simon Rattle, and Neeme Järvi are today's great Sibelius conductors, carrying on a tradition that began with Robert Kajanus and Sir Thomas Beecham. What are their thoughts on the Finnish composer?

"It may sound a bit crazy, but I actually think of myself more as a composer than a conductor. It just so happens that the conducting side has outweighed the composing," says Esa-Pekka Salonen in 1998.

Although still only 28, Esa-Pekka Salonen probably needs little introduction for anyone with even a moderate interest in classical music, since he has already gained what is known in the jargon of concert programmes as “an international reputation” for his conducting work. In this article, however, we take a look at the still small, but not insignificant output of Salonen the composer. When Esa-Pekka Salonen looks in the mirror, does he see a conductor or a composer looking back at him?

"These days Esa-Pekka Salonen is a superstar who spends seven months of each year composing and the rest conducting some of the world’s finest orchestras. He has seen the music scene in Finland change fundamentally since the founding of the FMQ."