FIRST OFF . . .

Esa-Pekka Salonen is headed for California as the music director-designate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, but he also intends to stay at his old job with the Swedish Radio Orchestra. The two orchestras complement each other, he said, as he signed a new two-year contract in Stockholm. “It’s only a formality. I’ll stay as long as Swedish Radio wants me,” said the 31-year-old Finnish conductor. “I think we are making better music than when I came here a few years ago.” Salonen said his new responsibilities in Los Angeles will mean dropping his positions as guest conductor of the London Philharmonic and with the Oslo Philharmonic in Norway. Salonen was named last month to the Los Angeles orchestra position, replacing Andre Previn at the start of the 1992-93 season. Salonen said he has almost finished recording the complete works of the 20th-Century Danish composer Carl Nielsen with his Swedish group, which he said was “so good it can be compared with any international recording orchestra.”