WEBVTT - A Classical Icon Who Has a Lot to Say for L.A. 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:05.000 This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing, 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:10.080 My chance to talk with artists, policymakers and performers, to 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:14.480 hear their stories, what inspires their creations, what decisions change 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:21.239 their careers, what relationships influenced their work. I began listening 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:24.680 to classical music in my twenties. Job hunting as an 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:26.720 actor in l A meant you'd be in your car 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:30.760 three four hours a day. I drive around listening to 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.360 the local classical stations, sometimes pulling over to call from 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:36.680 my car phone to find out the name of the piece, 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:40.360 who composed it, who performed it, and who conducted. While 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:43.080 I was learning the difference between Maler and Mendelssohn. My 0:00:43.200 --> 0:00:47.560 guest today as Apeca Solomon, a Finish French horn player, 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:51.479 also in his twenties, was making his conducting debut with 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.440 the Philharmonia Orchestra in London. Today Solomon is their principal 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.400 conductor and the new composer in residence at the New 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.640 York Philip Manik for the next three years. And that's 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:06.080 new because I, I mean, obviously, I've been composing for 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:10.280 decades and since I started studying music, really, but but 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:12.440 this is the first time I have an official position 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:14.679 as a composer as opposed to being a conductor of 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.559 some orchestra, and that for me, this is really fascinating, 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:21.360 exciting for a lot of people was fascinating. Actually, was 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:25.760 composition something that was the goal originally and conducting was accidental, 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:32.200 I'm told correct, that's true. Yeah, I I started studying 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:36.319 composition quite early in my teens. We started a group 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:38.720 of young composers in Finland. I was born and raised 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.600 in Helsinki, Finland. We had a group of young composers. 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.080 Mongst Lindberg was one of them. He was actually the 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:49.240 first composing composing in residents with the New York Philarmonica, 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.080 another very well non composer. Now, so we started this 0:01:53.080 --> 0:01:58.520 group together, um so idealistic group of young tucks, kind 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:00.960 of trying to change the world olden you know. We 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:05.720 thought that new music is good for people, and therefore 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.680 we took it out to you know, gas stations, prisons 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:12.679 or people's homes. So and then it was one of 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:18.080 those missions. Um. And it turned out that the real 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.200 conductors at the time in Finland we're not interested in 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:23.080 our stuff. So we felt that one of us has 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:25.640 to conduct something has to be able to do it. 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:30.600 So I was kind of voted um to become the 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:32.960 conductor of the group because I had a lot of 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:37.000 performance experience. I was a home player French home player, 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:41.280 and I used to sub in in healthy orchestras in 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:44.280 the opera at radio orchestra on zone, so I knew 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:47.840 what it meant to be on stage and play and 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:51.480 so on. So I started studying conducting just for this 0:02:51.560 --> 0:02:56.160 purpose basically, and so it was a fluke. And then 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:58.080 I realized that I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, 0:02:58.120 --> 0:03:00.480 and it seemed to becoming natural you to me, and 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:05.760 so on, m what did you enjoy about it? The people? Now, 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:09.640 when I think about it, I wasn't so clear about 0:03:09.680 --> 0:03:13.120 that before, But now when I have long periods of 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:16.480 of composing only, which is very lonely, of course, you know, 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:21.720 you're you're alone, essentially, it's very slow. You know, you 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:28.640 imagine something, then you kind of translate that dream into 0:03:28.680 --> 0:03:30.959 a sort of notation and so on, and it's a 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.440 very slow processing and lonely, as I said, and and 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:40.200 the energies a different kind of energy. It's the sort 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.640 of marathon runner's energy, you know, the long haul you 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:45.200 have to kind of pace yourself, and you have to 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:50.360 be very very patient and so on. Whereas conducting, of course, 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:55.480 it's a very intense thing socially. I mean, you are 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:59.440 on stage with hundred other people, and in the rehearsals 0:03:59.440 --> 0:04:05.160 you're trying to focused them. You're trying to present your 0:04:05.200 --> 0:04:07.320 ideas about the piece in such a way that they 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:11.920 not only accept them, but they they would willingly follow 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:14.160 you to wherever you want to go, and so and 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:19.440 and and I really enjoyed that aspect of it. The 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:21.520 actual act of conducting, you know, standing there on the 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:27.080 box waving the stick in the air, is not very 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:31.120 interesting in my opinion. It's it's just like the tip 0:04:31.160 --> 0:04:33.279 of the iceberg. But then why is that person there? 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:36.680 For those who don't understand that history of classical music, 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.239 there wasn't always someone standing on a podium conducting, correct, 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.320 That's right. Yeah. In the old days, I mean the 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:46.920 very old days we were talking about Bach and Hayden 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.880 and more Set and so on. The music was simple 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:55.080 enough and it behaved in a sort of predictable enough 0:04:55.160 --> 0:04:58.640 way that the musicians could actually take care of themselves 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:03.400 without somebody giving the beat, and you know, giving instructions 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:05.760 as to where it course and so on. But then 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:11.080 it started to become a little more complex with bet often, 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:15.200 and you know bet often. Symphonies are already very difficult 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.640 to perform without a conductor unless you're okay with a 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.120 totally standard, middle of the road kind of approach. But 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.839 if you want to do something, if you want to 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:25.680 do something with the music, then there has to be 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:29.400 somebody behind a concept. And then, of course, you know, 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:34.960 we move on in history onto the big opera guys 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:40.000 their Divagner zone, and then you know, onto Schraus, Bruckner, Mahler, 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:46.400 you know, Stravinsky. That music cannot be played successful. It's impossible. Yeah, 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:48.799 it's impossible from the coordination point of view, but also 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:55.240 the way it's composed, because the composer assumes that the 0:05:55.320 --> 0:05:58.560 interpretation has some kind of flexibility and ideas about the 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:02.640 tempo and the pacing so on. Wagner for instances, all 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.480 about the pacing. So what the conductor does is to 0:06:05.560 --> 0:06:09.919 handle the flow of time, um over an arch of 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:13.479 I don't know, five hours, six hours on including the 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:17.760 breaks of course. UM. So it's a it's a profession 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:26.400 that became necessary. Um. And somehow Somewhere during this process, 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:31.160 the conductor also became more visible, more of the center 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.320 of the musical life and the musical musical process, the 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.320 musical culture than the composer had been. And of course, 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:43.719 if you think of the modern um recording industry, you know, 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.440 with the with the LP and especially c D and 0:06:46.440 --> 0:06:49.800 now the tvds and what have you, had, the performer 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:53.000 seems to be the center of all almost all attention, 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:57.320 and the person who wrote the music, who in my opinion, 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:02.839 is rather a big part of the chain, is actually 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:06.880 not well recognized, yeah, but not not treated in the 0:07:06.920 --> 0:07:09.200 same sort of heroic way as as the conductors are. 0:07:09.240 --> 0:07:14.080 For instance, I had a really kind of illuminating experience 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.040 in in l A some years ago. I was I 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:20.040 was in a I was at Starbucks, actually queuing for 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.560 my coffee, and there was a guy in front of 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:26.720 me who asked where whether whether I was songs and 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:29.320 I said, yes, I am. And he introduced himself and 0:07:29.480 --> 0:07:34.160 he said he was also a composer. And I said, um, okay, sorry, 0:07:34.160 --> 0:07:37.600 I don't recognize your name. I'm sorry, sorry about that. 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.520 And he said, no, nobody does, but I write songs 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:44.480 for pop stars and and he said I told me 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:46.560 that he had written a couple of songs from Madonna 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:51.520 and you know these huge names and his his name 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:57.240 doesn't appear anywhere, and I thought, you know, this is symptomatic. 0:07:57.280 --> 0:07:59.840 So it's not only a classical music problem. I mean 0:07:59.840 --> 0:08:03.560 it's a problem across the board. There was some guy 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:08.600 in London composer who calculated that if if a composer 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.600 wants to get up to the minimum wage annual meanium 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:16.920 wage of the UK, he or she needs like one 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:21.320 point seven trillion downloads be here or or hitsp here. 0:08:22.000 --> 0:08:25.360 What I want to get back to is you are 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:32.000 in London and you're at the phil Harmonia, correct, and 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:36.280 you're playing the French horn and not anymore to know 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:38.480 what what what? What were you playing at the moment 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:40.920 you were asked to step up and conduct Isn't that 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:43.280 when you were first asked to conducted? I was still 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:46.400 playing you're playing those And who was the conductor at 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.320 the time, Michael Tilson Thomas Tilson Thomas was conducting the 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:51.480 phe Harmonia. Then yes, he was supposed to do the 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:56.160 Third Symphony and what happened? I think he injured his 0:08:56.640 --> 0:08:59.560 elbow like a tennis elbow or something like that and 0:08:59.679 --> 0:09:05.400 had to pull out. And they called everybody on the 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:08.920 planet with no success, obviously, and then they ended up 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:13.280 with me, who was completely unknown. I had an agent 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:16.800 who worked with a few artists, but his main business 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:21.360 was in golf accessory uh and he operated out of 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:25.960 a golf course in a smallish city of in Finland 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.120 when nobody spoke English and zones so forth, so it 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:30.840 took a little while for the messages to get through. 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:34.360 I had had a long night with my pals, composer 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:38.600 pals when the call came in early in the morning. 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:41.520 So it's this guy from the golf course saying that 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:44.720 the Philimonia wants you to contact Marla three and I 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:49.080 told him to disappear in using expressions I will not 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:54.679 repeat here public radio. Yes absolutely, And he called back 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.079 a couple of hours later, when I was already talkable, 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.559 and said, okay, here's the deal. So do you want 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.680 to do it? And I thought, okay, So if it 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:07.040 goes well, fine, if it doesn't, at least I can 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:10.480 tell this to my grandchildren that I've done it once, 0:10:10.920 --> 0:10:14.240 or at least tried to. And then I went and 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:18.440 did it. And that's how I became a full time 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:24.920 conductor for a while. Your parents were not musicians, correct, No, No, 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.600 My father was a businessman and my mom was mostly home. 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:35.200 They loved music, listened to music. They went to concerts occasionally, 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:38.880 but they didn't practice music in it and listened to 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:42.560 recorded music. Yes, my father especially, he loved opera, and 0:10:42.559 --> 0:10:44.440 he loved Italian opera. So I had a lot of 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:46.840 very d and Puccini playing when I was going up 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.199 and had that affect you. I have had a very 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:52.920 problematic relationship with Italian opera every since. This is quite normal. 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.320 I guess you know it when your dad is really 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.360 into something, when and then you grow up, you kind 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:01.560 of decided not to be into the same thing. Um. 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.000 I think it's a healthy reaction. So that's not just 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:07.920 a finish thing. It's a no. I think it's the universal, 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:14.000 it's a global And once he came home, he was 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:16.599 very proud. He had bought a new recording of of 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.360 Laboy m and he said it. He told me that 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:23.520 he got it really cheaply. It was a special offer, um. 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:28.800 And it was a Deutsche Berlin version of the Labom 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:34.120 in German UM. And I grew up with this recording 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:37.840 It's funny because when I hear it now in Italian 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:39.720 it sounds all wrong. I can't listen to it in 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:44.600 Italian because it it's it's it goes in German in 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.960 my memory. And it's funny how we get conditioned in 0:11:47.960 --> 0:11:51.280 our child childhood and it never changes when you when 0:11:51.280 --> 0:11:55.760 you stepped up at the age of to conduct the 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:59.680 Maler third with the Philharmonia, did you have a sense 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:03.680 like what did you do that? You think? How did 0:12:03.679 --> 0:12:05.680 it go? What do you attribute to that it was 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.040 so successful? Because everything I read they talk about you 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:12.320 becoming an overnight sensation as a conductor as a result 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.160 of this performance while you were doing it, where you're 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.880 saying yourself, Wow, this is really going well, where you 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:23.319 don't think about that. I think that the critical moment 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:27.400 is the first minute in the first rehearsal with the orchestra. 0:12:27.600 --> 0:12:29.559 I mean most of my colleagues can actually say the 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:32.920 same thing. I'm sure that when you meet a new orchestra, 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.920 especially when you're young and you don't have that routine 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:42.839 how to deal with with people you don't know, Um, 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:45.640 that's the moment when you don't know how it's going 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:50.079 to go. Um. And with the Philomonia. I felt this 0:12:50.200 --> 0:12:54.000 connection in a really strange way, and it's very hard 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.440 to explain. It's something it's something that happens between people. 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.840 I mean even in your private life, and you meet 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.880 body and you know from day one or the first 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:05.160 second actually that this person is going to be a 0:13:05.240 --> 0:13:09.720 very important influence, positive constructive influence in my life. And 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:13.520 the opposite happens as well. All the flags go up 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:15.880 and you know that you you you have to stay 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:18.920 away from this person no matter what. And you're very 0:13:18.920 --> 0:13:22.160 instinctual that way. Well we all are all are. I 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:23.920 think it's a it's a biological thing you know that 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.000 you know has to do with survival and you know, 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:32.360 the forming internal relations which tribe but you know, keeping 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.800 the cohesion of the society and isn't that um. But 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:40.760 so with the Philimonia, I felt straight away that wow, 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:46.040 these guys seem to not only accept me, but but 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:51.800 they seem to follow me and kind of willingly. UM. 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:53.839 And I was quite an experience because it was the 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.160 famous Philimoni Orchestra and the conductor was recorded the multi 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:04.240 at that time, and you know, it's like a deal um. 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:07.000 And I have had these kinds of experiences later on 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:11.080 in life as well, and they they it never fails, 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.320 the mechanism might. I felt the same kind of thing 0:14:14.360 --> 0:14:18.040 in l A a year after the Philomonia concept when 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.400 I met them for the first time, and I had 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:22.240 no idea what to expect. That it was my first 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:25.600 trip to the US ever, so it was a culture shock. 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:28.080 And of course I start out in l A, which 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.920 is even more of a shocked than anything else would 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:33.720 have been. And then I can say that again, yeah, 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:36.200 And then I stepped in front of the band and 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.200 and and they're terribly nice. But but more but more 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.080 than that, you know, like connecting straight away and and 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.960 that for me is the very essential thing about making music. 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:49.280 And and with both focus with l A and the Philimonia, 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:58.520 I've sometimes had this very strange experiences, you know, some 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.680 kind of communication that is beyond certainly beyond words, but 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.840 also beyond gestures in a way. And I'm thinking of 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.160 something I can I can swear that they do it 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:10.760 before I've done it, so that they this this kind 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:16.640 of fine tuning, fine tuned trust in each other in 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:19.720 a way, and it has to be mutual otherwise that's work. 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:25.600 So after the performance of the Maler in London. You 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:28.360 were twenty six years old. When does your first assignment 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:33.360 come as a music director of ensemble? I started out 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.120 in Stockholm with the Swedish Radio Orchestra. Soon after this 0:15:38.560 --> 0:15:41.280 un did the job you wanted. It was the best 0:15:41.400 --> 0:15:44.040 orchestra in Scandinavia at the time and and still is 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:45.520 one of the very best, if not the best. And 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:53.000 um and that was perfect for me because I I 0:15:53.080 --> 0:15:56.360 was in a in a culture that was familiar to me, 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.280 I spoke the language, and still it was away from home. 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:04.480 Was staying in the Scandinavian sphere? Did you want to 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.360 stay there for the time? Thing? It felt like a 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.560 very good idea because I I like the idea of 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:14.080 being in a culture where no particular translation was necessary, 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:17.240 and I understood the reactions with people, and they understood 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:21.640 reactions of mine or the lack of lack of lack 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:25.600 of reactions and um. And it was a very good 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:29.640 orchestra and they were very nice people and um and 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:31.600 the same kind of thing that there was a very 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:36.480 sort of intuitive understanding people. People who have a prejudice, 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:40.680 I suppose myself included that there's a Scandinavian soul and 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.440 that they crave music of a certain type or key 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:46.040 or do they want that not true? Did they want 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:49.440 to hear everything? I'm not sure there's a Scandinavian soul. 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:56.400 It's it's a it's a myth in many ways. Technically, 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:01.320 if we look out from the finished perspective and try 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.200 to decide who is who are the ones that are 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:08.919 closest to us in you know, historically, traditionally, temperamentally, in 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:12.240 every way, it's the sweet. Also, Finland was part of 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.800 Sweden for six years. Um, so there's there's a lot 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:19.159 of history, but still there's a fundamental difference in in 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:25.520 how we behave in social life and um, the Sweets 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:32.440 are very smooth, socially smooth, skillful to people. They work 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:36.919 very well in groups. They they're very successful in everything 0:17:36.960 --> 0:17:41.040 they do. You know, they they are experts at selling 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:46.200 their products globally and internationally so on. Um, and they're 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:50.119 very brilliant in many ways. Finns. First of all, Finns 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:56.119 don't speak much. I mean talking using more than the 0:17:56.160 --> 0:18:00.040 absolute minimum amount of words to get your mess it 0:18:00.119 --> 0:18:05.560 across is somehow considered being frivolous or you know, suspect 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:10.639 or something like that. And yeah, some kind of you know, 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:17.240 trying to achieve your goal through flattery or whatever. Um. 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:19.720 I realized this. I saw this very clearly when when 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.639 after some years in l A, I went back to 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.199 my country house in Finland and went up jogging. And 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:32.000 I had learned this habit of greeting everybody like you 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.119 do in l A. You know, you're walking on the 0:18:34.160 --> 0:18:37.879 street and you just great, great people. Um. And I 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:43.400 was greeting everyone, you know, every villager, and they looked 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:45.840 at me like some kind of space aliens. What what 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:48.560 has happened to this guy? He was perfectly normal a 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.000 few years ago. Now he's been in America anyway, Now 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.320 he's like this or what's rotic? What is this all about? 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.439 Salmon is rooted in the United States. Two of his 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.760 three children were born here. And I'd love to claim 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:08.440 Salmon and as our very own, but I'd have to 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:13.080 get in line. He's an international superstar, with seven honorary 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:17.119 doctorates from four different countries. Be sure to explore the 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:20.760 Here's the Thing archives. You can find my conversation with 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:24.600 Alex and Jamie Bernstein, whose father, like Solomon, had a 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.640 serendipitous debut as a conductor at a major concert hall. 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:30.959 So he gets back to Carnegie Hall at you know, 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:34.840 five in the morning and passes out, and then like 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:36.560 an hour and a half later, the phone rings and 0:19:36.560 --> 0:19:39.320 it's Bruno Zerato of the New York Philharmonic saying, this 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:41.879 is a kid, you have to go on this afternoon. 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.639 And it was on the radio as a national broadcast. 0:19:46.080 --> 0:20:03.840 Take a listen at Here's the Thing dot org. This 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:06.720 is Alec Baldwin and you were listening to Here's the Thing. 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:10.960 In two thousand three, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, home 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.639 to the l A Philharmonic, opened in downtown Los Angeles. 0:20:15.080 --> 0:20:19.480 The spaces internationally beloved for its design and its acoustics 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:22.040 as a pack of someone in the music director of 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:25.240 the orchestra at that time, Chris in the space when 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:29.480 it opened. The project got started in the late eighties already, 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:32.920 so I was involved. I was a music director designated 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:38.760 from from So I started talking with Frank Garry already 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:42.920 then and um, but they had started the fundraising and 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:47.560 the first donation came in and in already I believe, so, 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:51.960 so it really was a fifteen year project. Um. And 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.200 then we started developing the idea and it came to 0:20:55.240 --> 0:20:59.960 a halt a couple of times, um for financial ways, 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:05.199 financial and political like garious conception. It was not so 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.200 much about that, but it was just things that happened, 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:12.640 like the riots in ninety two in l A and 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:16.520 you know somehow around King. Yeah, when when you realize 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:19.800 that the society was kind of falling apart, and and 0:21:19.800 --> 0:21:23.520 and and everybody realized that they were these huge tensions 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:30.040 and that the kind of peace and and rule of 0:21:30.200 --> 0:21:33.520 law was just a base of thin layer on top 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:36.840 of it all. So I think everybody felt that that 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:39.040 there are huge problems that need need to be need 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:43.359 to be addressed. And at that point, to even speak 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:45.440 about building a new concert hole in downtown l A 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:48.320 felt like the wrong thing to do. And I think 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:53.159 it a new police station maybe, yeah, rather some you know, 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:57.840 more constructive ideas as to how to alleviate the situation, 0:21:57.880 --> 0:22:01.679 how to make things better and so on. Um. But 0:22:01.800 --> 0:22:07.880 then things moved on luckily later in the in the nineties, 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:12.800 and I think the turning point was in when the 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:18.119 Philharmonic did a month long residence in Paris and and 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.080 lots of people came to hear their own orchestra playing 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:26.040 in a great concert Hall in Paris to shutly and 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:29.720 and then that I think that was the thing that 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:33.119 changed the whole thing, that all of a sudden people 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:38.639 realized that a musical experience is really as some of 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:43.520 its parts. And one very important thing is that the 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:46.280 space where the Oxtrad place. And if it doesn't sound good, 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:50.120 there's little hope. What was it like to live so 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:53.160 many years in Los Angeles coming from where you came from, 0:22:53.200 --> 0:22:56.160 and just culturally I loved it. I think it's a 0:22:56.240 --> 0:22:59.080 really great place to live, and it takes a little 0:22:59.080 --> 0:23:01.480 while to get used to it. To be honest, it's 0:23:01.480 --> 0:23:05.760 allows the place to visit because in in two weeks 0:23:06.760 --> 0:23:10.240 you're only confused and you don't get it, but it 0:23:10.600 --> 0:23:14.840 really does grow on you and um and also for 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:18.320 me as a as an artist and as a as 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:23.639 a person, it was really incredibly helpful to be away 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:26.160 from the sort of European counton, you know, the sort 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:32.440 of arrogant European intellectual canon that you know in the 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:35.520 music world. And of course when I started out in 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:38.240 l A, I had this some kind of residue from 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:42.080 this European thing that okay, I'm here too to bring 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:46.959 some kind of culture to elevate you. Yeah, this culture 0:23:47.000 --> 0:23:51.400 is medicine kind of thing which is vile. Thank god 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:58.080 I'm here, Yes, aren't you lucky? Um? And it was 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:01.840 an interesting process because I was talking about things, you know, 0:24:02.080 --> 0:24:05.480 the way we used to in in your bost days, 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:08.119 and you know, with this kind of all kinds of 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:11.800 intellectual constructs and you know, the historic necessity of a 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:14.400 tonal music and listen that. And people were very nice, 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:17.720 they said, oh, yeah, great, interesting, But how does it sound? 0:24:19.200 --> 0:24:21.600 Or asking these questions that are the obvious questions that 0:24:21.640 --> 0:24:24.480 everybody should ask, but we we weren't for some reason 0:24:24.560 --> 0:24:29.120 asking so what that sounds great? But um, what does 0:24:29.119 --> 0:24:33.120 it do to me? How? How will I feel? One? 0:24:33.240 --> 0:24:36.960 Is the actual effect and impact of what you're doing 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:45.880 on me? And and I couldn't quite answer to those questions. 0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:52.440 And and this started a big process where I kind 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:57.520 of rethought my values, my life and my artistic hearth. 0:24:57.640 --> 0:24:59.959 While you're in Los Angeles, yeah, while I was there. 0:25:00.000 --> 0:25:07.360 And I describe that process. Um, it's hard to describe 0:25:07.400 --> 0:25:10.520 it in words. But but what happened composition wise was 0:25:10.560 --> 0:25:14.280 that I had come to a drought. For a few years. 0:25:14.320 --> 0:25:19.320 I hadn't written anything, Um, and I was blaming the 0:25:19.400 --> 0:25:21.840 conducting schedule. I was. I was conducting around the world, 0:25:21.880 --> 0:25:24.280 and I was learning all that repertoire, you know, all 0:25:24.320 --> 0:25:26.359 of a sudden, I was doing all the betomin symphonies 0:25:26.400 --> 0:25:28.800 and the Brahms and the Bruckner and god knows what. 0:25:29.560 --> 0:25:33.840 So I was I spent lots of hours in front 0:25:33.840 --> 0:25:39.320 of the score buried. But it was not only about 0:25:39.359 --> 0:25:42.879 the lack of time. It was it was more like 0:25:42.920 --> 0:25:46.440 a crisis. I didn't know what to write and how 0:25:46.520 --> 0:25:53.080 to write. And I had this like a dichotomy. Um 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:58.000 that the music I loved playing and performing was not 0:25:58.200 --> 0:26:03.080