Esa-Pekka Salonen Leads Debussy & Boulez at Walt Disney Concert Hall

As a teenage aspiring composer with a modernist ear, Esa-Pekka Salonen idolized composer and conductor Pierre Boulez and has become one of the biggest champions of his music. Salonen writes, “It can be complex without ever losing its clarity, it can be aggressive or delicate, hypnotic or kaleidoscopically flickering, ritualistic or virtuosic. But most importantly, it is often hauntingly beautiful.” Salonen contrasts Boulez’ serialist voice with fellow French composer Debussy’s impressionism—a pairing critic Mark Pullinger compared to “glaring sunburst [and] smudgy haze” or “Monet and Jackson Pollock.” Boulez’ solo piano Notations (each only 12 bars) flow into a version for orchestra that explodes the original musical idea with orchestral colors. Like Salonen, Boulez was not only a renowned conductor of Debussy’s music, but also of Bartók’s. Teaming up with pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Salonen leads one of Bartók’s most lucid and lyrical creations and Debussy’s conversation between wind and wave. For the finale, L.A. Dance Project takes the stage for Rituel—“the most sensuously appealing score of Boulez’s career” (The New Yorker)—in a new dance choreographed by Benjamin Millepied.