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LA Variations (1996)
Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 1958)
Born in Helsinki, Finland, Esa-Pekka Salonen began his musical studies at the Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, specializing in horn and conducting, and received diplomas for horn in 1977 and for conducting in 1980. His rise as a conductor was extraordinarily rapid; he made his international conducting debut in 1983 at age 25 with the London Philharmonia Orchestra, and two years later, became Principal Conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, as well as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonia and the Oslo Symphony Orchestra in Norway. In 1992 he became Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and has just completed his fourteenth season with the orchestra.
As a composer, Salonen studied with Italian composers Franco Donatoni and Niccolò Castiglione and has written a number of well-received orchestral works, the most popular of which is LA Variations. He notes that his most recent works are more disassociated from the feeling of European Angst or anxiety that was so important for post-war Modernism. “I believe we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We can find new power in the physical dimension . . . I am no longer interested in distance. I want to be near things and in the middle of things, not outside,”
Salonen has written the following notes for LA Variations:
LA Variations is essentially variations on two chords, each consisting of six notes. Together they cover all twelve notes of a chromatic scale. Therefore the basic material of LA Variations has an ambiguous character: sometimes (most of the time, actually) it is modal (hexatonic), sometimes chromatic, when the two hexachords are sued together as a twelve-tone structure. This ambiguity, combining serial and non-serial thinking, is characteristic of my work since the mid-eighties, but LA Variations tilts the balance drastically towards the non-serial.
This piece is very clear in its form and direct in its expression. The two hexachords are introduced in the opening measures of the piece together in the chromatic phenotype. Alto flute, english horn, bass clarinet and two bassoons, shadowed by three solo violas, play a melody which sounds like a kind of synthetic folk music, but in fact is a horizontal representation of the two hexachords transposed to the same pitch.
Some of the variations that follow are based on this melody; others are the deeper, invisible (or inaudible) aspects of the material. There are also elements that never change, like the dactyl rhythm first heard on the timpani and percussion halfway through the piece. This is a short description of the geography of LA Variations:
1) The two hexachords together as an ascending scale. Movement slows down to
2) Quasi folk-music episode (which I described before).
3) First Chorale (winds only)
4) Big Chord I. The two hexachords are interpreted three times in three different
ways in a very large chord.
5) Scherzando, leggiero.
6) A machine that prepares the even semi-quaver movement of
7) Variation of the melody in trumpets and first violins.
8) Fastest section of the piece [quarter-note = 150]. First woodwinds in the highest
register, then bass instruments in the lowest register. An acrobatic double
bass solo leads to
9) Variation for winds, percussion, harp, celesta.
10) Canon in three different tempos. Scored for chamber ensemble.
11) A tutti string passage leads to Big Machine I. Percussion prepares the mantra
rhythm: [eighth-note, two sixteenth-notes, eighth-rest, eighth-note, two
sixteenth-notes, eighth-rest]
12) Second Chorale.
13) A new aspect of the melody in unison strings.
14) Tempo [quarter-note=125]. Canon à 3.
15) Big Machine II. Probably the most joyful music I've ever written.
16) Big Chord II. This time two different interpretations of the hexachords.
Repeated mantra rhythm in timpani, roto-toms, and log drums grow to
maximum power.
17) Coda. Two hexachords together as in the beginning. Scored for eight muted
cellos, eight muted violins and piccolo.
I wrote LA Variations specifically for the players of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. I'm very proud of the virtuosity and power of my orchestra.
Suggested recording:
Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen
Sony Classical B00005OKTG
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