Guest conductor Franz Welser-Möst leads the Los Angeles Philharmonic in works by Finnish composers Kaija Saariaho and Jean Sibelius at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday, February 28 and Saturday, March 2 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, March 3 at 2:30 p.m. The orchestra will play Saariaho's Du cristal, along with Sibelius' First Symphony. Philharmonic Principal Cellist Andrew Shulman is the soloist for Haydn's Cello Concerto in D. The concerts feature a pre-concert discussion with music scholar Eric Bromberger in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion's Grand Hall one hour before each performance.

Tickets ($12 - $78) are on sale now at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office, all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons-May, Tower Records, Ritmo Latino, and selected Wherehouse locations), and by credit card phone order at 213/365-3500. Tickets are also available on-line at www.laphil.com. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available 2 hours prior to the performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for special discounts. For further information, please call 323/850-2000.

Kaija Saariaho's Du cristal was co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Helsinki Festival, where it received its world premiere, September 5, 1990 with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. It had its U.S. premiere in November of that same year when the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed the work at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Saariaho has been described as both a Serialist and an Impressionist: she follows in the long line of composers influenced by Debussy and his style.

Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in D was written in 1783, after his early expansive and inventive period and directly at the end of a decade spent composing opera. Thought not to be a true Haydn composition for many years, it was finally authenticated. The confusion is understandable; the composer, known for radically rearranging musical forms, here writes a concerto similar to his other mature works and not typical of his personality.

Jean Sibelius began work on his first non-programmatic symphony in 1898, after a decade of forming and consolidating a personal musical language influenced both by Tchaikovsky, especially the 6th Symphony, and Wagner. The piece reflects Sibelius' realization of the strength of his purely symphonic instinct. The success of its premiere in 1899 was soon eclipsed by his even greater success, that of Finlandia, written that same year for a pageant.

Grammy-nominated Finnish composer KAIJA SAARIAHO has lived and worked in Paris since 1982. She studied composition at the Sibelius Academy and later at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg. In 1982 she attended courses in computer music at IRCAM in Paris, after which time the computer has been an important element of her composing. She achieved international reputation with works that include Verblendungen (orchestra and tape, 1982-84), Lichtbogen for chamber ensemble and electronics (1985-96), Nymphéa (1987) for string quartet and electronics (a commission from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet), and two linked orchestral works Du cristal and ...à la fumée premiered in 1990 and 1991 both in Helsinki and Los Angeles. More recent works include a violin concerto, Graal Théâtre, (1995) for Gidon Kremer and two pieces for Dawn Upshaw: an orchestral song cycle, Château de l'âme, (1996) and a solo song cycle Lonh (1996) for soprano and electronics. In 1999 Saariaho completed a major work for chorus and orchestra, Oltra mar, which was given its premiere by the New York Philharmonic and Kurt Masur in November 1999, as part of their millennium series of commissions. Saariaho's first opera, L'amour de loin, with libretto by the French-Lebanese author Amin Maalouf, co-commissioned by the Salzburg Festival and Théâtre du Châtelet, received its premiere in August 2000 at the Salzburg Festival. Théâtre du Châtelet, and Stadttheater Bern produced the work at the end of 2001, and the U.S. premiere will be given by Santa Fe opera in summer 2002. Saariaho's music is available on the Finlandia, Ondine, Wergo, Neuma, BIS and Sony Classical record labels.

In June 1999, Austrian conductor FRANZ WELSER-MÖST was named Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra and will begin his five-year tenure with the 2002-03 season. Since his American debut with the St. Louis Symphony in 1989, he has returned regularly to the United States, appearing as a guest with the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony. Since 1995, Welser-Möst has been the Music Director of the Zurich Opera. A highlight of his tenure in Zurich is a complete Ring cycle this season. His rise to the international circuit began in 1986 when he made his debut with the London Philharmonic, a relationship that developed over the next four years and resulted in his being appointed Music Director in 1990, a position he held for six years. Welser-Möst holds an exclusive recording contract with EMI. His many recordings with the London Philharmonic include music of Mozart, Bruckner, and Schumann and 20th-Century works by Schmidt, Stravinsky, Orff, Kancheli and Pärt. His recording of Schmidt Symphony No. 4 won the 1996 Gramophone Magazine Award for Best Orchestral Recording. He has received Grammy nominations for his recordings of the Bruckner Mass No. 3 and Te Deum, and the music of Korngold with The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Cellist and conductor ANDREW SHULMAN took up his position as Principal Cello of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in September 2000. Born in London, he studied cello and composition at the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music. After his studies, he became Principal Cello of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, before being offered the same position with London's Philharmonia Orchestra at the age of 22 by conductor Riccardo Muti. In the ensuing years, he performed all the major cello concertos with the Philharmonia and other orchestras around the world. In 1990, Shulman won the Piatigorsky Artist Award given by the New England Conservatory in Boston. In recent years, Shulman's conducting career has equaled his career as a cellist. He has conducted most of the Beethoven symphonies, four Mahler symphonies and symphonic works by Bartók, Brahms, Bruckner, Debussy, Dvorák, Elgar, Holst, Ravel, Sibelius, Strauss, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky with orchestras throughout Europe and in England. In the field of opera, he has conducted Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi fan Tutte, and Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel. Shulman has also made many recordings, including over twenty CDs with the Britten Quartet (EMI).

EDITORS- PLEASE NOTE:

Thursday, February 28, 8 PM

Saturday, March 2, 8 PM

Sunday, March 3, 2:30 PM

DOROTHY CHANDLER PAVILION, 135 N. Grand Ave in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES PHILHARMONIC

FRANZ WELSER-MÖST, conductor

ANDREW SHULMAN, cello

Saariaho: Du cristal

Haydn: Cello Concerto in D

Sibelius: Symphony No. 1

The concerts feature a pre-concert discussion with music scholar Eric Bromberger in the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion's Grand Hall one hour before each performance.

Tickets ($12 - $78) are on sale now at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office, all Ticketmaster outlets (Robinsons-May, Tower Records, Ritmo Latino, and selected Wherehouse locations), and by credit card phone order at 213/365-3500. Tickets are also available on-line at www.laphil.com. A limited number of $10 rush tickets for seniors and full time students may be available 2 hours prior to the performance at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion box office. Valid identification is required; one ticket per person. Groups of 10 or more may be eligible for special discounts. For further information, please call 323/850-2000.

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