Friday, November 17, 2006

Salonen

He looks dashing, but I've heard very little from Salonen (or the L.A. Phil, for that matter) that ever impressed me. Although his Herrmann was great, I find Salonen's treatment of the "war horses" quite shallow. For example, I attended a perfomance of Bruckner 4 some years ago, and caught Salonen falling all too easily into the trap of making the piece episodic, rather than an organic whole that builds momentum with each crescendo.