Adieu.(Esa-Pekka Salonen life as a musician)

When Esa-Pekka Salonen began rehearsing for his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, in 1984, he introduced himself to the orchestra with these somewhat unpromising words: "I suppose that you know the Lutos?awski notation." On the program was Witold Lutos?awski's Third Symphony, a formidable score that periodically directs the musicians to play fragments of melody at their own pace, in episodes of controlled chaos. At that moment, it would have been difficult to guess that the soft-spoken, serious-minded Salonen--a twenty-six-year-old Finn with an avant-garde bent--would become not only the longest-serving music director in the Philharmonic's history but also a driving ...