Salonen Sets Own Style for Philharmonic : Music: Orchestra’s director-designate, in residence for 5 weeks, has charmed players, management and public.

If the past month means anything, we have seen the future--Los Angeles Philharmonic-style--and it works. And works and works and works. . . .

For the last five weeks, music director-designate Esa-Pekka Salonen has been in residence here, his longest stint in Los Angeles to date. He conducted 11 public performances of five different programs--including the U.S. premiere of one of his own compositions--rehearsed, recorded, took countless meetings and generally pressed flesh and pitched the Philharmonic cause before constituencies ranging from society donors to curious high schoolers.

From this period emerges a clearer picture of the Salonen years, an era already well under way, although he doesn’t drop the designate part of his title until the fall of 1992. The response, from the crucial intersecting interests of management, orchestra and public, has been nothing short of euphoric.

“I think it’s been the best month that I can recall in years and years and years for everybody here,” says Ernest Fleischmann, Philharmonic executive vice president. “What’s happened in this short time is an incredible energizing. The orchestra’s so up, and the audience buzz is fantastic.”

“It’s confirmed that these are very exciting times to be in the Philharmonic, and will continue to be,” violinist Michael Nutt says. “He really looks like he’s enjoying it here and, of course, that kind of feedback is good for us.”

Listeners have expressed their approval with their wallets, in increasing lines at the Philharmonic box offices. This last weekend of concerts was sold out, the weekend before nearly so.

The man himself still evinces quiet self-assurance.

“It is a lot of work, but it’s not completely new to me,” Salonen says. “Programming, for one thing, is fairly independent here, partly because this is the only show in town, so we don’t have to take other plans into account. That’s one of the very pleasant things about this country.

“I’ve been working more or less regularly with the Philharmonic since 1984, but I’m learning new things daily. Not major things, but the dialogue between the environment and the music is making more sense.”

His musicians have noticed, and appreciated, Salonen’s increased familiarity with his working environment.

“The main thing that has changed is that Esa-Pekka is clearly getting more comfortable with us,” says violinist Guido Lamell. “In the past, it was as if he were a little reluctant to speak directly to us.”

“He’s gotten to know us better,” Nutt concurs. “He’s not so much a visiting conductor as part of the family. All of a sudden we realize he’s got a terrific sense of humor, in the kind of jokes a guest could never make.”

Joy in what he is doing is often evident in Salonen’s podium work, but real humor went unsuspected in his public persona too, until this visit. He capped a Green Umbrella concert, however, with his “Floof,” an extended musical chortle.

Composing, though, is not part of Salonen’s life in his music director mode. His few free moments are usually spent with his concert scores, and “psychologically it is difficult to compose when concentrating on other people’s music,” he says.

His next major project is a semi-sabbatical to catch up on his commission obligations.

“I’m working on a piece for chamber orchestra that was supposed to be played in 1987,” he says. “That gives you an idea where I am at.”

The repertory of other people’s music that Salonen programmed for this period gives clear indications of the directions in which he wants to take the orchestra. One strong hint was the characterful, highly personalized Haydn he offered two weeks ago.

“I plan a lot of early classical music for my first full season,” he says. “It’s been neglected here. That’s a semi-commercial problem because, in Europe at least, it is considered the private domain of the period-performance bands. I don’t really believe that.”

Salonen’s parallel devotion to contemporary music may be taken as a given, but he says the emphasis on the music of his compatriot Sibelius is not a good clue to the Philharmonic future.

‘The fairly dense Sibelius presence on my programs will soon be over,” he reports. “It was a practical thing to do, because of the recordings. I wanted to record the early Sibelius, and the characteristic sound of the Los Angeles Philharmonic is very good in Sibelius--very rich, very full, particularly the low end, which is so important in Sibelius.”

The recording that he made last week at Royce Hall with the Philharmonic was of the Finnish composer’s “Four Legends” and “En Saga.” When Salonen comes back in February, recording sessions will add Sibelius’ “Kullervo” Symphony and branch out to the Mahler Fourth Symphony and Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Cho-Liang Lin.

If there was anything in this close encounter that threatened to flap the unflappable Finn, it was the intensity of the social whirl so inextricably bound up with orchestra operations in this country. A brush with the Music Center Founders League had a reportedly lipstick-smeared Salonen dubbed “the cute one,” to the amusement of Philharmonic staffers.

“It was beyond my imagination,” a bemused Salonen concedes. “But I’m not completely naive, so I know that this is the system in this country. If people don’t give money, there’s no music. It’s a factor, it’s reality.”

Lipstick or no, there are few who doubt Salonen’s ability to cope with reality, Philharmonic style. An unreserved vote of confidence comes from Fleischmann, whose current enthusiasm seems closest to the giddiest days of Mehta.

“There’s never been a period when so much was transformed for the better in so short a time, particularly in morale, the intensity and commitment of both the orchestra and staff,” the Philharmonic managing director says.

“It’s been far beyond my highest expectations--and my expectations were pretty high.”