During the 2020 moratorium on live performances, Esa-Pekka Salonen contributed a series of 10 short “lockdown commissions” for the British violist Lawrence Power, who had himself filmed performing each piece in and atop iconic venues in the UK—including Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh for Objets Trouvés (“Found Objects”). Salonen has written a grimly virtuosic part for solo viola, which seems at times chained to the relentless drone against which it plays, generating a tension and desire for release that works splendidly as musical metaphor.  

Since the pieces were premiered online—Power’s rendition can still be seen on YouTube—when LA Phil principal violist Teng Li performed Objets Trouvés at the 2021 Ojai Music Festival, this marked its first live concert performance. She revisits this work on tonight’s program. —Thomas May