When the San Francisco Symphony announced last week that conductor-composer Esa-Pekka Salonen has been chosen to serve as Music Director Designate effective immediately, there was an almost-audible gasp of relief, as well as a frisson of excitement, in the Bay Area classical music community.
Salonen, who proved himself an exceptional orchestral leader over a 17-year music directorship with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is precisely the kind of creative, curious, innovative music director under whom the SF Symphony, nurtured over 25 years by the charismatic and artistically impeccable music director Michael Tilson Thomas, will thrive. His mastery of the core repertoire — Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn — is assured, plus he is unafraid of exploring contemporary and less well-known compositions. The New York Times notes he is "the rare conductor who is tech-savvy and cool enough to have been a pitchman for Apple." Despite his Finnish heritage, he fits in exceedingly well with West Coast musical and philosophical sensibilities. Salonen, 60, will lead the SFS in concerts this coming Jan. 18-20, in a program of music by Sibelius, Richard Strauss and living! Icelandic! composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, then begin his official tenure in September 2020.
San Francisco Symphony President Sakurako Fisher and Chief Executive Officer Mark C. Hanson announced the Salonen directorship last Wednesday night at an exciting event at SoundBox. Also announced were eight creative and artistic partners who will serve in a collaborative capacity with the new music director: pianist, film producer, and composer Nicholas Britell; classical soprano Julia Bullock; flutist and new music advocate Claire Chase; composer and The National guitarist Bryce Dessner; violinist Pekka Kuusisto; openly gay composer Nico Muhly; artificial intelligence entrepreneur and roboticist Carol Reiley; and jazz bassist and vocalist Esperanza Spalding.
The general consensus among musical professionals is that this is exactly the right choice for our city's brilliant, accomplished classical band. But Salonen and his collaborators have their work cut out for them, bringing the Symphony world further into our troubled century while filling Davies Hall. The standard subscription model of building audiences doesn't seem to appeal much to Millennials, many of whom won't commit to even a coffee date in advance lest something better come along. There's also contending with the insidious appeal of the internet, which has reduced many potential listeners' attention span to that of a mostly illiterate gnat.
But if there is a musical leader alive who can thread this needle, the SFS and its board have found him. It will be difficult to get new audiences in the Hall, but once they are there they will find there is exactly nothing in the world like the sound of a live symphony orchestra, and San Francisco is blessed with one of the best, most innovative and open to new experiences, ensembles in the musical universe.
We have a quibble with the headline of the Times story: "San Francisco Lands a Disruptor." Ask anyone in a creative profession who has been usurped by a "disruptor" operating under the assumption that all art, literature, music and other cultural entertainment can be totally free — we're not fans of that word. Esa-Pekka Salonen is a compelling visionary, yes, but he's respectful as well of our musical traditions.