Joonas Kokkonen News
Finnish composer (1921–1996)
- piano
- opera, symphony
- Finland
- composer, pedagogue, musicologist, university teacher, pianist
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2024-04-20
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2017-12-02 21:54:00
Finland 100th Birthday Gala Helsinki Suomen itsenäisyyden satavuotisjuhla
[…] a grand piece for a grand occasion. In the second half of the concert, post-war Finnish masters, like Aukis Sallinen Variations for Orchestra op, 8, (1963) an early work which already shows some characteristics of Sallinen's style. Monumental forms, brightened by well defined detail, bubbling rhythms, angular shapes, a very"organic" feel. Two readings from poets Arto Melleri and Paavo Haavikko followed , so intriguing that it was maddening not to understand the language. Then, Joonas Kokkonen Il paesaggio (1987) brooding and mysterious. In contrast, Jouni Kaipainen's Millennium Fanfare, big on brass and percussion, vivid shapes. strong forward thrust and energy. The high point, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Helix (2005) : woodwinds, and contrabassoon rising above grumbling timpani, then brass and strings. A steady pulse, throbbing purposefully. Double themes, wrapping around each other on different levels with many variations. A lot is happening here, but with increasing liveliness. the structure is disciplined. […]
Norman Lebrecht - Slipped disc
2016-02-04 17:25:43
Another maestro dies: the driving force in Finnish opera
Ulf Söderblom has died, in the week of his 86th birthday. Ulf was principal conductor of Finnish National Opera from 1973 to 1993 and one of the makers of the Savonlinna Opera Festival, conducting its 1967 reopening after half a century’s inaction. Among the new operas Ulf commissioned were Joonas Kokkonen’s The Last Temptations and Aulis Sallinen’s Kullervo and The Horseman. He belonged to an age of opera expansion.
2015-11-13 15:00:52
[…] after attending the funeral of Scriabin, in Moscow, on 16 April 1915. While he was recovering, he succumbed to a heart attack in Dyudkovo, near Zvenigorod. A museum dedicated to Taneyev is located in Dyudkovo. There is also a section dedicated to Taneyev at the Tchaikovsky Museum in Klin. 2 In 1868 Gioachino Rossini died at 76 in Passy, near Paris. In 1893 Jean Sibelius’s “Karelia Suite” was premiered in Viborg, Finland. Joonas Kokkonen In 1921 Joonas Kokkonen was born in Iisalmi, Finland, but spent the latter part of his life in Järvenpää at his home, which was known as “Villa Kokkonen”, designed by Alvar Aalto and finished in 1969. He served in the Finnish army during World War II with great distinction. He received his education at the University of Helsinki, and later at the Sibelius Academy, where he afterwards taught composition; his students there included […]
2015-10-02 15:00:55
[…] the attention of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Leopold Stokowski (the later would premier his Primavera Romana in Liverpool). He considered himself a teacher, more than a composer, and would go on to teach Donald Runnicles, Nicholas Cleobury and Nigel Osborne. 2 In 1943 R. Nathaniel Dett died at age 60 in Battle Creek, Mich. In 1960 Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 was premiered in Leningrad by the Beethoven Quartet. In 1996 Joonas Kokkonen died at age 74 in Jarvenpaa, Finland. In 2001 Steven Heitzeg’s “Nobel Symphony” was premiered at Gustavus Adolpus College in St. Peter, Minn., by the Gustavus Orchestra, soloists and choirs, conducted by Warren Friesen. http://www.leroyshield.com/faq.html Wikipedia contributors, “Kenneth Leighton,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kenneth_Leighton&oldid=682884612 (accessed October 2, 2015).
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