It was completed in 2017 and was first performed by the cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Salonen on March 9, 2017.
The first movement bears the informal title of "Chaos to line," about which Salonen remarked, "I like the concept of a simple thought emerging out of a complex landscape.
Finally the kinetic energy burns itself out gently, the rapid movement slows down and the cello line climbs slowly up to a stratospherically high b-flat, two centimetres to the left from the highest note of the piano.
It is as much a showpiece for his stupendous instrumental gift as it is a study in opposing forces — think quiescent clouds of lyricism giving way to punchy hyperactivity, and back again."
He added, "Those forces are finally reconciled over the course of the half-hour piece, which ends with Ma climbing to a vertiginous high B flat on the cello's A string, as if he were reaching for the stars.
Cosmic imagery — racing comets and the "stylized chaos" of the universe, to quote the composer — in fact plays a central role in Salonen's compositional thinking here, as does throwing prickly technical challenges in the cellist's way and daring him, with a good-natured wink, to surmount them.
"[6] Lawrence A. Johnson of the Chicago Classical Review also praised the work, but noted, "Salonen mentioned in his opening remarks that his Cello Concerto took two years to complete, which is unusually long for him.
Wright nevertheless added, "Whatever his objectives in a piece, the conductor-composer Salonen can be counted on to write for orchestra with exceptional imagination.
This concerto continually surprised and delighted the ear with fresh sounds, from the chugging, twinkling orchestral 'chaos' of the opening pages (reminiscent of the concert's opening piece, John Adams's The Chairman Dances) to the third movement's cello-conga duet between Ma and the Philharmonic's principal percussionist Christopher S.