With a highly acclaimed performance of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen acquired worldwide fame at the tender age of 25. Within the following years he not only became the musical head of several festivals, but also guest-conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra London and chief-conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Salonen’s appointment as musical director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the year 1992 is definitely one of the highlights in the career of this amazing musician. Together with the LAP the ambitious Finn realised many great concerts and released some fabulous recordings, mostly with 20th century music repertoire. This program shows Salonen while rehearsing Claude Debussy’s La Mer. There is a special connection between La Mer and the conductor, who is fascinated by the countless sound possibilities of the impressionistic work. He used some performances to experiment with the work’s score, but admits that only due to long lasting and intense collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic he had had the opportunity to really analyse the different elements of La Mer and to elaborate the whole symphonic composition by assembling the single parts again.