# Joonas Kokkonen



## eugeneonagain

Joonas Kokkonen ((November 13, 1921 - October 2, 1996) was a Finnish composer. He was one of the most internationally famous Finnish composers of the 20th century after Sibelius; his opera The Last Temptations has received over 500 performances worldwide, and is considered by many to be Finland's most distinguished national opera.

Wikipedia bio here.

Even though I'd heard of him I was only aware of his famous opera _The Last Temptations_ and since I'm no opera buff I never bothered investigating any of his other music. Lately I stumbled across his string quartets and was impressed. Poking around youtube I found this symphony:






I've since acquired a copy of his 2nd symphony, also on the BIS label. Both are quite short; a great relief from the symphonies with endless running times. They probably appeal to me because they deviate from from strict twleve-tone composition by employing elements of earlier music and simply defaulting to tonality if and when required. In that respect they remind somewhat of Paul Hindemith's music, though the actual content is different.

These composers - and others like Mieczysław Weinberg, Shostakovich, Erwin Schulhoff seemed to me a much more productive line of composers employing the new ideas of the 20th century alongside existing ideas to make music palatable to more than just a small crowd.

Here is his cello concerto from 1969. Which I found when looking around for something like Mieczysław Weinberg's cello concerto. It's different, but a marvellous work:






Finally, the first movement of Kokkonen's 3rd string quartet (1976):


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## MusicSybarite

I've only listened to the symphonies, but sadly they don't do much for me. However, I'm not discouraging you to try them. Perhaps I haven't listened to them enough to have a better assessment. I think the 4th is the most easily appealing.


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## Josquin13

Frustratingly, BIS has never issued that Okko Kamu LP recording of the 4th Symphony on CD--which you've linked to above (or Leif Segerstam's recording of the 2nd that it came coupled with on LP). I've written to BIS about it, but never received a response. Sadly, I suppose they don't see it as a profitable venture...

I discovered Joonas Kokkonen's music several years ago, and have enjoyed getting know his works--especially the 4 Symphonies, "...durch einen Spiegel"-"Metamorphoses" for 12 solo strings, Music for String Orchestra, Sinfonia da Camera, Opus sonorum, 3 String Quartets, Piano Quintet, Cello Concerto, Cello Sonata, Piano Trio, The Last Temptations (opera), Requiem, a song cycle for soprano & orchestra entitled "Hades of the Birds" (sung by soprano Monica Groop on a BIS CD), and an interesting assortment of solo piano music (5 Bagatelles, Impromptu, Sonatina for piano, "Pielavesi Suite", 2 Little Preludes, etc.,).

I'd consider Kokkonen's 4 Symphonies to be 20th century masterworks, especially the 3th & 4th, and very underrated music. They've been recorded by a number of conductors so far:

1. Like Kamu & Segerstam, Finnish conductor Paavo Berglund was an early champion of Kokkonen's music (in the 1960s), and made premiere recordings of his Symphonies 1, 3, and 4, and "...durch einen Spiegel" for 12 solo strings:

https://www.amazon.com/Kokkonen-Sym...sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=jonas+Kokkonen+berglund
https://www.amazon.com/Kokkonen-Mee...mr0&keywords=jonas+Kokkonen+meet+the+composer










2. The previously mentioned recording by Okko Kamu of Kokkonen's 4th, made in 1971, and Leif Segerstam's 1961 recording of the 2nd. Of these, I've only heard Kamu's 4th, as it's available to listen to on You Tube (unlike Segerstam's 2nd). I actually prefer Kamu's 4th to Berglund's, surprisingly so, since Berglund is a favorite conductor of mine in Sibelius. It's one Kokkonen's finest symphonic works, and deserves to become standard concert hall repertory, in my view (as do all his symphonies).

3. In the digital era, conductors Ulf Söderblom and Osma Vänska combined to record Symphonies 1-4, and the Requiem, as part of BIS's project to record all of Kokkonen's music for their "Complete Kokkonen Edition" (which has never been finished, no pun intended): https://www.amazon.com/4-Symphonies...1030&sr=1-3-fkmr1&keywords=jonas+Kokkonen+BIS. I bought this box set back in the 1990s, but Kokkonen's music didn't catch on with me at the time. I probably only played it once, and set it aside--strange how that happens.






4. More recently, I've also enjoyed conductor Sakari Oramo's recordings of Kokkonen's Symphonies 1-4, with the Finnish Radio S.O., on Ondine. Oramo is the one of the finest conductors today, IMO, and he's been a tireless advocate for unjustly neglected 20th century composers (especially from Scandinavia), such as Kokkonen, and for new works by contemporary composers, such as Magnus Lindberg, Per Nørgård, Kimmo Hakola, Anders Hillborg, Jouni Kaipainen, Kaija Saariaho, etc. His recordings of Kokkonen's 4 Symphonies (and Opus sonorum, & the Cello Concerto) are excellent; however, Symphonies 3 & 4 may take some tracking down, in order to find them at a reasonable price (as the CD is out of print), but they're well worth searching for, IMO. Or, you can just listen to them for free on You Tube:

Symphonies 3 & 4, & Cello Concerto, Sakari Oramo, conducting the Finnish Radio S.O.:





Symphonies 1 & 2, & Opus sonorum, Sakari Oramo, conducting the Finnish Radio. S.O.:

Symphony No. 1:


















Opus sonorum:





Symphony No. 2:

















https://www.amazon.com/Kokkonen-Sym...9802259&sr=1-1&keywords=sakari+oramo+kokkonen
https://www.amazon.com/Joonas-Kokko...pID=51S18J3EGQL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Other You Tube offerings of Kokkonen's music:

Cellist Petja Svensson playing his starkly beautiful Cello Sonata:














String Quartet No. 2, played by the Melos Quartet:


















https://www.amazon.com/String-Quart...39804705&sr=1-2&keywords=kokkonen+piano+music

Kokkonen's Requiem: Ulf Söderblom has recorded it twice, for BIS and Finlandia, and there has also been a recent arrangement made for voices and organ: https://www.amazon.com/Requiem-J-KO...d=1539806564&sr=1-1&keywords=kokkonen+requiem. Unfortunately, I can't find the Requiem on You Tube:

https://www.amazon.com/Requiem-Joon...d=1539804563&sr=1-6&keywords=kokkonen+requiem
https://www.amazon.com/Symphony-3-O...d=1539804563&sr=1-5&keywords=kokkonen+requiem
https://www.amazon.com/4-Symphonies...d=1539804563&sr=1-2&keywords=kokkonen+requiem

Ulf Söderblom has also recorded Kokkonen's opera, The Last Temptations, for the now defunct Finlandia label, but its difficult to find at a reasonable price: I found that you have to watch the Amazon listing from time to time, as it occasionally becomes available at an affordable price (for under $20): https://www.amazon.com/Kokkonen-the...pID=51F7mXKSszL&preST=_SX300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch

Kokkonen's solo piano works: I've liked Kokkonen's imaginative "Pielavesi Suite"--1. Preludietto, 2. Nocturne, 3. Sade (Rain), 4. Iltapilvia (Clouds at evening), and 5. Aamutuuli (Morning Wind), which was only recently given a world premiere recording in 2001 by pianist Janne Mertanen, on the Alba label. In my view, the "Pielavesi Suite" deserves to be better known: 




Mertanen's entire album can be heard on You Tube:





https://www.amazon.com/Piano-Works-...39804705&sr=1-6&keywords=kokkonen+piano+music

Obviously, I consider Kokkonen to be an underrated composer outside his native Finland.


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## eugeneonagain

The Osma Vänskä recording of the 2nd is the one I picked up second hand (not looking for it, just on the off-chance). It's coupled with the cantata _Erekhtheion_ and 'Interludes' from _The Last Temptation_. It was the 4th symphony I really wanted.

His organ music is worth listening to as well.


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## Josquin13

I haven't gotten to any of his organ music yet, but know that he was a religious man.

Here's a bit of classical music trivia: five composers (that I know of) in music history wrote onto their finished manuscripts the Latin term "Soli Deo Gloria" (translated, "To the Glory of God Alone"): they are J.S. Bach (who wrote S.D.G. at the end of his church compositions, and once said "The final aim and reason of all music is nothing other than the glorification of God and the refreshment of the spirit"), F.J. Haydn (who wrote "In nomine Domini" or "In the name of the Lord", "Laus Deo" or "Praise be to God", "Soli Deo Gloria" or "To the Glory of God Alone" on his major works), G.F. Handel (who wrote it on such works as his Te Deum), Christoph Graupner (a prolific, but neglected contemporary of Bach, Handel, & Telemann's, who was offered the post at St. Thomas, Leipzig before Bach and turned it down), and Joonas Kokkonen (who concluded his works with the inscription S.D.G. L.D.--"Soli Deo Gloria, Laus Deo").

Here's a link to an article on Kokkonen and his works published by the Finnish Music Quarterly in 2001 (written by Mats Liljeroos): https://fmq.fi/articles/the-apostle...-people-is-the-core-of-joonas-kokkonens-music

One work that I forgot to mention in my above post is Kokkonen's Wind Quintet. There is a tradition of composing fine Wind Quintets in Scandinavia, and Kokkonen's quintet makes a worthy addition to the field. There have been three recordings to date of the quintet--one on BIS, by the Sinfonia Lahti Wind Quintet, as part of the BIS Complete Kokkonen Edition, a second on BIS by the Helsinki Wind Quintet, and a third by the ensemble Arctic Hysteria (or Arktinen Hysteria), on the Alba label. The Alba recording is on You Tube:


















https://www.classicalarchives.com/album/6417513103076.html
https://www.amazon.com/Finnish-Wind...&sr=1-1&keywords=joonas+kokkonen+wind+quintet
https://www.amazon.com/Spiegel-quin...id=1539872860&sr=1-7&keywords=joonas+kokkonen
https://www.classicalarchives.com/work/561425.html

Of interest, Kokkonen's house, "Villa Kokkonen", has been turned into a museum (of sorts) and a concert venue. It was built and designed by architect Alvar Aalto in 1969, and is located on Lake Tuusula (or Tuusulanjärvi) in Southern Finland: https://www.villakokkonen.fi/en


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## Gargamel

This is a gorgeous piece! I think the definition of Kokkonen is that he is a "fun" composer.

Requiem and Symphony No. 4 is also among my favorites. (Not too sure about the other symphonies; I think they're too short.)


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## CnC Bartok

There are a lot of relatively modern Finnish operas doing the rounds - and of those I'd probably say that Aulis Sallinen is the finest composer in that genre, The Horseman and the Red Line are proper masterpieces, and The King goes Forth is really growing on me. Then there's the two operas of Madetoja, and Meerikanto's Juha, and the Rautavaara works too (I really like Thomas among his).

That said, as far as I am concerned, the finest of the lot is Kokkonen's Last Temptations. This is a very powerful opera, typically bleak and depressing a la Finnish Opera, but it tells a good story and has a flow that others lack. It is well worth hearing. Probably my favourite Kokkonen work.....


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## Gargamel

CnC Bartok said:


> There are a lot of relatively modern Finnish operas doing the rounds - and of those I'd probably say that Aulis Sallinen is the finest composer in that genre, The Horseman and the Red Line are proper masterpieces, and The King goes Forth is really growing on me. Then there's the two operas of Madetoja, and Meerikanto's Juha, and the Rautavaara works too (I really like Thomas among his).
> 
> That said, as far as I am concerned, the finest of the lot is Kokkonen's Last Temptations. This is a very powerful opera, typically bleak and depressing a la Finnish Opera, but it tells a good story and has a flow that others lack. It is well worth hearing. Probably my favourite Kokkonen work.....


What I love about the Rautavaara operas, especially the later ones which also exist as orchestral suites, is their "endless melody" that also have a very singsong quality. Kokkonen's opera stands more out as an orchestral monument. (I love how gorgeously the finale of the opera rings out.) Love Merikanto too, he actually became more innovative while he seemed to regress.


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## Gargamel

CnC Bartok said:


> There are a lot of relatively modern Finnish operas doing the rounds - and of those I'd probably say that Aulis Sallinen is the finest composer in that genre, The Horseman and the Red Line are proper masterpieces, and The King goes Forth is really growing on me. Then there's the two operas of Madetoja, and Meerikanto's Juha, and the Rautavaara works too (I really like Thomas among his).
> 
> That said, as far as I am concerned, the finest of the lot is Kokkonen's Last Temptations. This is a very powerful opera, typically bleak and depressing a la Finnish Opera, but it tells a good story and has a flow that others lack. It is well worth hearing. Probably my favourite Kokkonen work.....


Are you familiar with other Nordic operas? The only one I know well is Lycksalighetens Ö by Hilding Rosenberg, from his earlier period before he became an ultramodernist. It's one of the most wonderful operas I've heard and has some kinship with Last Temptations. (Since I discovered Rosenberg, I totally stopped caring about Nielsen.)


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## Guest

I like this recording very much. The music is powerful, somewhat dissonant, yet still fairly melodic.


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## Gargamel

Interesting how some composers start out as stark twelve-tone composers (Kokkonen, and in some way Rautavaara) and then regress away from it or become more traditional, and others (the very last works of Rosenberg) become fierce modernists at the end of their lives. Maybe Kokkonen got some ideas from his twelve-tone experiences and these started living their own life?


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## CnC Bartok

Gargamel said:


> Are you familiar with other Nordic operas? The only one I know well is Lycksalighetens Ö by Hilding Rosenberg, from his earlier period before he became an ultramodernist. It's one of the most wonderful operas I've heard and has some kinship with Last Temptations. (Since I discovered Rosenberg, I totally stopped caring about Nielsen.)


Not a huge repertoire of operas on my part, I am afraid, but I like to think I know what I like!

Aulis Sallinen is the stand-out one for me, as I said, there is something intensely human about his operas, strong characters (Antti, Topi, Kullervo etc) good story lines, and damned good music, and among the other Finns, The Ostrobothnians, Juha (x2) and The Last Temptations are wonderful works. I am less familiar with Rautavaara's, and haven't explored as much as I should have, but Thomas is an intriguing work, and different in a good way.

What an awful thing to say about Nielsen, though!! I am less of a fan of Maskerade, but Saul and David is an absolute masterpiece as far as I am concerned, and I reckon it's got enough going for it to deserve a place in the repertoire outside Copenhagen. Sorry, but I am pretty unfamiliar with Rosenberg, should give him a go. I was highly impressed by a set of the symphonies of one of his disciples, (Karl Birger Blomdahl) so he could float my boat maybe?

If you get the chance, two of the finest Nordic Operas I know were composed by Eduard Tubin (either a Swede or an Estonian depending on your point of view, I suppose). Barbara von Tisenhusen and the Parson Of Reigi are well-crafted and utterly compelling. I still don't understand why Tubin remains a fringe composer, his body of work is very strong indeed.

Away from the operatic, years ago I collected some of the "Meet the Composer" twofers released by Ondine/Finlandia, showcasing some of the composers who are hardly household names, mainly in terms of their orchestral music, but far from exclusively so. It's how I cemented my interest in Sallinen, and allowed me to discover some very fine composers, Madetoja, Merikanto, Kuula, Klami, just to name a handful. These CDs are not so easy to get hold of these days, alas.

There you go! Not much to go on, but some ideas to look into if you fancy it. I have felt that my excursion into the music of Scandinavia over the years has yielded some duds, but significantly more areas of proper quality. It seems your experience has been very much the same?


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## Gargamel

CnC Bartok said:


> Not a huge repertoire of operas on my part, I am afraid, but I like to think I know what I like!
> 
> Aulis Sallinen is the stand-out one for me, as I said, there is something intensely human about his operas, strong characters (Antti, Topi, Kullervo etc) good story lines, and damned good music, and among the other Finns, The Ostrobothnians, Juha (x2) and The Last Temptations are wonderful works. I am less familiar with Rautavaara's, and haven't explored as much as I should have, but Thomas is an intriguing work, and different in a good way.
> .........


I actually used to know Sallinen's operas and symphonies pretty well (probably listened to the Red Line and Kullervo 10 times each) but that was in 2005 (I was 21 years old) so I'm gonna have to revisit them. I was also much into Nielsen around those years, but a few years ago became immersed in all of Rosenberg's works to the point of fanatisicsm, and ever since then Nielsen's Fourth and Fifth don't do much for me. (The Sixth is the most appealing to me.) Rosenberg is so much more varied and his orchestration more impressive, yet he comes off as clear-cut and delineated as Haydn in his proper string quartets. At one point, he does ethereally beautiful choral writing as the Fifth and Eight symphonies, and at other times he comes of as the most hardened modernist of all, for instance the Seventh symphony and the "What-the-fvck-did-I-just-listen-to?" 12th Quartet. I wouldn't wager much on a common denominator between Rosenberg and Blomdahl, as the closest indicator to Roserberg is Max Reger, while Blomdahl has much in common with Krenek and Bartok. Maybe I'll get Tubin one day.


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## Gargamel

CnC Bartok said:


> If you get the chance, two of the finest Nordic Operas I know were composed by Eduard Tubin (either a Swede or an Estonian depending on your point of view, I suppose). Barbara von Tisenhusen and the Parson Of Reigi are well-crafted and utterly compelling. I still don't understand why Tubin remains a fringe composer, his body of work is very strong indeed.


Maybe it's because his music doesn't really have much in common with the scandinavian composers. I've been listening a lot to his symphonies 4 through 7, to me it's akin to many british or New england composers, you know? Havergal Brian, maybe William Alwyn. (Surprisingly Brian, who changed a lot in style after he composed gothic, considered himself a schoenbergian composer or at least said Schoenberg was his greatests teacher.)


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