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Joonas Kokkonen
Joonas Kokkonen (1921-1996) was one of the dominant figures
of the post-war history of Finnish musical life. He was also
a leading symphonist who, in addition to composing made a
tremendous contribution to his field by serving in numerous
important administrative capacities, such as the chairman
of Teosto, the Finnish copyright bureau and the chairman of
the Nordic Composers Council. Kokkonen was also professor
of composition at the Sibelius Academy from 1959 until 1963.
Kokkonen has come to be regarded as the spiritual successor
to Sibelius while names such as Bach and Bartók have
been proffed as his models. Following an early period of neoclassicism,
he turned to 12-tone technique and on via his third symphony
(1967) to free tonality. In the 1970s, especially, melody
acquired an increasingly prominent position in his music.
Kokkonen was not a particularly prolific composer. Beginning
with chamber music, he did not progress to orchestral music
- nowadays considered his core genre - until he was nearly
40. Music for String Orchestra was written in 1957
and marked his breakthrough as a major orchestral composer.
Kokkonen composed four symphonies in all; he is also known
for his famous Cello Concerto, his Requiem and
above all for the opera The Last Temptations completed
in 1975. This main work by Kokkonen has won itself a place
among one of the most succesful Finnish operas.
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