tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with one the world's most acclaimed .onductors, esa-pekka salonen he is also the conductor laureate of the los angeles philharmonic. an ongoing part of the 10th anniversary celebration of disney hall. are glad you have joined us. a conversation with esa-pekka salonen, coming up right now.

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: conductor and composer esa-pekka salonen was the artistic leader of the l.a. philharmonic before turning over his duties. he has now returned to the l.a. field for a series of concerts, including the premier of frank zappa's 200 motels. yes, you heard that right.

plus his own violin concerto. let's take a look at esa-pekka salonen as they play his violin concerto. ♪ tavis: you really consider yourself a composer more than a conductor, yes? it started out like that. conducting is something that happens. fluke. i wasns by

studying composition, and we had a group of composers back in the 1970s, and the real conductors, we felt that we had to have one conductor in the group to do all that, so i was kind of voted to be that one. i realized it was actually something i like doing, so it started like that. anever thought i would have international career as a conductor. it was not part of my plan. tavis: what is the joy, the difference between the joy that composing brings you and the joy that conducting brings you? >> conducting is intensely social. you work with a hundred people collaborate, you try to focus their thoughts, you

try to give them a concept, you try to inspire them, and it's actually exhausting. [laughter] energy.there is so much you get back a lot of course, but you also have to give a lot. things,of high-energy we rehearse for a few days are sometimes a week and then the concert, and then it is over. whereas composing is the total opposite of that. if you would like to describe composing as an act with one w" would be the word. sometimes you spend nine months, 10 months, a year composing, you never see anyone. it is very sort of metabolic.

tavis: why are how did this vocation come to you, with regard to writing original compositions, writing new, contemporary classical stuff, when there is so much of the old stuff? if we always thought like that, why would we study physics? why would we think of cosmology? why would we do any kind of research, because we already know so much of note. there is no one person that can contain all that information. the same thing with art. it would be tempting to say am a white paint, because we have michelangelo -- to say, why paint, because we have

michelangelo? it's not about that. when an artist works today, or whenever, it's not about creating immortal masterpieces. that is the one thing we don't design ourselves, it is generations after. it's about writing something that relates to here and now, something which is about communicating your thoughts and your understanding of what is important to other people. and therefore, we need new are. old art cannot do that. and of course humanity hasn't changed that much. last thousand or 2000 years. the old greek rom is -- old are still at the

core of human experience. but still, we need new stuff. about i hear your stuff the new art versus the old art. our traditional, lassa cool music lovers open to new art? i listen to your example about the visual arts, for example. i sense is that people are actually open to seeing new stuff. our traditional, classical music lovers open to hearing new stuff versus beethoven, etc.? term,on't like the classical is wrong, but we don't have a better word. [laughter] tavis: give me something else. >> i wish i had one. but anyway, it has been a more difficult process for audiences

around the world, and i'm not completely certain why. , inou think of the history the days of brahms and beethoven everyl these guys, almost country had a concert music hall, and to play something old was expected. change between the first and second world wars, and somehow what happened was that the hero , thehad been the composer hero now was the performer, and especially the conductor. of mildlya kind annoying mythology about conductors, riding a harley- davidson and wearing a leather suit. i don't think he ever wrote and

harley-davidson in his life. [laughter] conductor as a conduit between the masterpiece and the mortals. i think it is very disturbing image, actually. somehow the sort of her marshall parameters of classical music changed after the war. it might have to do with the fact that lp changed the business. 's became widely available in the 1950s, all of a sudden every household had access to these masterpieces. when you think of a european or american how so in the 1950s, what were the things that when people started climbing up the

ladder, what did they buy? , i think pn oh was the number three item. and access to masterpieces, the series of books, the international plays of shakespeare, and this and that. somehow the idea of being part culture appeared out of that equation. i would say it is our fault as well because we kind of cultivated that image with these harley-davidson's. do i take from your statement now that you think there is too much conductor worship in our contemporary society? alone, but itor

think that my industry, the classical music industry has been an industry of covers. so we do covers. with thecompare this rock and pop side, what is the most exciting event? it is the new album of a band or a singer-songwriter or whatever, and people are eagerly awaiting to hear the new piece, the new stuff. industry, we have turned it into this endless cover producing. and it is a pd. pity.is a the situation is changing about us, and it's people who work with these institutions, how we can find a balance, to be guardians of the legacy on one level.

it really is a miracle how a piece by beethoven is completely alive today and how it still speaks to all kinds of people in all countries around the world and all that. that is a miracle, and we have to take care of that legacy. at also, we have to have g.rong, to contemporary win tavis: how do you encourage young minds to take up that challenge? there is a prize that bears your l.a. philharmonic honors, those persons who are writing contemporary music for the orchestra. minds you encourage young to take up that challenge if and when they know that the old stuff is always going to be more highly regarded than anything they put together? all, these

institutions are very interested in finding young talent, composing talent and of course performing talent. that is clear. known this is not so well- among young people who are interested in music, who are talented in music, but they are trying to figure out how to go about it. -- we stillo have do have a pr problem in the sense that these is to tuition spur trade themselves quite often -- that these institutions as gearedthemselves toward dead or almost dead people. [laughter] is that there is a lot of interest, and every orchestra i know, every opera house i know

, is desperately looking around, trying to find new talent, new composing talent, supporting new ideas and new ways of getting the message across. we are in the process of getting the word out, and we haven't done very well yet, but we are trying. tavis: you said when you walked on the set the very first time we met, a day on never forget, one of the great joys of my life ,atching you and when marsalis it was a great day for me. but i've never had an opportunity to see you conduct in a place like london. is there a difference in conducting stateside and conducting in london, or an international destination? >> the biggest difference between this country and most european big cities it is that in a place like london, for instance, there are five

orchestras, and there is a lot of competition between these five orchestras. in some ways it is good, because it keeps everybody on their toes. but somehow, the idea of the local symphony orchestra or philharmonic orchestra being our ing, like that doctors or the lakers, that sort of thought never develops in europe to cut as there is always more than two orchestras. idea ofhis identification with the local team. that is what an orchestra should be. it is an orchestra for its hometown, and it serves the people. think critics have been saying this, the cultural life in l.a. has gotten much better. we are much more sophisticated, more cosmopolitan. it has gotten so much better. part of that has to do with the advent of disney hall, the

presence of -- even prior to that of esa-pekka salonen. the city is coming into its own, culturally. that is my assessment. would that be your assessment? >> absolutely. there's something very special about this part of the world, which is the openness and the curiosity and the lack of prejudice, and the lack of generally excepted norms of what art should be and how an artist career should go and all that. i find that really inspiring. and therefore, lots of interesting people move here and decide to work here, because of the latitude and opportunity. thatbsolutely convinced this is just the beginning. in a couple of decades, we will see an even more dramatic change. i should mention

architecture because we talk about the advent of disney hall. give me your assessment, i'll let you brag just a little bit about what you think the presence, the advent of disney hall to our skyline, to our cultural expression and our cultural experience. it has been 10 years. give me your top line on what that has done for the city. >> i think it has changed everything. and i'm not trying to sound pompous. privatece where architecture is very interesting, often, and public architecture is often very boring, all of a sudden there is his public architecture that is unique. nothing that was ever seen before. what is even better is that in its function, it's almost unbeatable.

it's one of the very best concert halls in the world, and the sound is one of the top five or top three or whatever. it's just a total success. changede, this message the life of classical music in this town. all of a sudden people know there is a world-class venue where they can hear world-class , very reasonably priced, and it's right there in the middle of downtown l.a. you lay the foundation for this, but i suspect you are happy with the decision to bring amel here and the energy he has brought to disney hall. >> he is amazing. one of the greatest conductors i have seen in my life. tavis: and you saw him early on. >> i saw him when he won the

competition and i was a jury member. i saw him conduct the first day and then i went and picked up the phone and said i have seen something have not seen before, so you have to invite this guy now. he conducted the orchestra and it was a big hit. and then we realized that this is the man, and he is doing very well with the orchestra. tavis: how are you dividing your time these days? i know you're still composing, still conducting. you have a place in london and a place here in los angeles. how are you dividing your time and your work these days? more thanposing before. i'm cutting down on conducting. i'm trying to conduct only five months a year and the rest will be composing time. i'm trying to spend as much out

of those eight months as i can here in l.a.. for created for, this is a fantastic lace. tavis: what makes it so? openness,it is the and i feel this is my artistic and i'm very happy to be a california artist. together with many others who are not from here originally, but who decided to make this the center of their activities. there's something about that that i find very inspiring, satisfying. long way from a finland. is this how you saw the story being written? me whenmebody had told i was starting composition in helsinki in the 1970s that i would end up in l.a., and to , i wouldthat journey have said this is a fairytale of the first order.

but as it happened, i think it was one of the luckiest things in my life that i came here in the late 1980s, early 1990s, in more than one way. of course the philharmonic became such a journey and adventure in my life, and a deeply satisfying thing, but coming from a very rigid european type of training to this culture which is a lot more , and and kind of curious asking different sorts of questions, the problem for me european movement in the 1970s was all about right or wrong. some things were right and you would deal with the truth, as it were. and some things were very wrong and therefore not allowed. realizedme here, i

that art is not necessarily about that. get-- people who paid for dealing with that. art is probably something else. on as high ating level as possible. of understoodd only after i had been here for a little while, where i realized that the european government is not the only way to look at things. tavis: i want to ask this question only because the next time i see you or you come on this program, i want to advance this conversation. when you suggested earlier that classical isn't the right word,

and you don't really like this word, but you don't have a different word for it, tell me what we are going in search of. you may discover a word somewhere down the road, but tell me what the discomfort is and tell me what we are looking for. >> we deal with music that is being played by traditional instruments, and mostly by orchestra, in a specifically built building called the concert hall. but classical, the reference is wrong, because classical, on one hand, refers to the one period of music history, which is a but itriod in history, was a while ago. on the other hand, it elite sometimes to class -- alludes sometimes and the point is the music is available, and it is

relatively reasonably priced. theent tickets at philharmonic or about $12 at the moment. normal cheaper tickets are less than $40 at the moment. so we are not talking about an elite artform from the price point of you. we have a building in l.a. that is incredibly open, exciting, inviting and all that. there's no reason for this music not to be part of everybody's everyday life. tavis: so the term is too highbrow all the way around. >> yes, he just gives the wrong message. if i were in a position to announce the public competition to coin a new word, i would do it right now. >> i'm going to do it right now. website at pbs.org.

outs help esa-pekka salonen and see if we cannot come up with some ideas. i am curious. i'm going to think about it myself. in the meantime, i want to thank the maestro and composer and all around good guy, esa-pekka salonen, for coming around. you cannot find a more beautiful building and you cannot get better sound and talent than we have here in los angeles. good to have you on the program. that's our show for tonight. thank you for watching. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with john nichols about his new book, "dollarocracy."

that is next time. we will see you then. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. >> be more. pbs.

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