Composers: Esa-Pekka Salonen 
Compositions: Cello Concerto
Performers: Yo-Yo Ma vc, Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen
Catalogue Number: Sony 19075928482

The Finnish conductor and composer, Esa-Pekka Salonen, has often been interested in the idea that music is the creative tension between its organic and mechanical elements. He was written that he thinks “musical expression is bodily expression, there is no abstract cerebral expression in my opinion. It all comes out of the body.” Music for Salonen, therefore, is deeply and essentially physical; approaching composition as an exercise in thought and ideology is the wrong way forward. His Cello Concerto, co-commissioned by the Chicago Symphony...