A few years back, Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Esa-Pekka Salonen, a native of Finland, borrowed a little American entertainment industry slang when he told The Times that he expected to continue in the high-profile post as long as he felt "a good vibe from the band."
But Saturday, Salonen, 48, surprised more than a few members of "the band" with a post-rehearsal announcement that, despite the continuing good vibe -- indeed, perhaps because of it -- the conductor would step down at the end of the 2008-09 season to devote more time to composing. According to Brian Drake, a French horn player and 28-year orchestra member, Salonen said he wanted to "go out at the top."
And just as the musicians were adjusting to this news, there came another startling announcement from Philharmonic President Deborah Borda: Salonen would be succeeded by a 26-year-old rising star, Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
It was not as though the orchestra was unaware that Salonen might someday relinquish his position to further his composing goals. Still, Drake said Sunday, "Actually hearing it, actually having it be a fact, is still shocking."
Cellist Gloria Lum said that she and a handful of other musicians went out after the post-rehearsal meeting, and she acknowledged that it took "a drink, a couple of drinks" for the artists to process the double announcement.
But Lum echoed what appears to be a unanimous good vibe of approval for Dudamel, music director of the Simon Bolivar National Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, on the part of musicians and Philharmonic board members. Dudamel led the orchestra for the first time in 2005 at the Hollywood Bowl and returned to conduct it at Walt Disney Concert Hall in January.
"We're a hard-bitten group of people -- I mean, we're really very nice, but we get to work with some of the greatest conductors in the world," Lum said. "To suddenly have the kind of connection and enthusiasm that we had with him was surprising.
"There are many conductors who are technically perfect, but they are taken with themselves, with their own ego as opposed to the music. With Dudamel, there is no artifice, no ego."
Lum and other orchestra members also expressed relief that the announcement of Dudamel's appointment was concurrent with Salonen's resignation.
