Finnish pianist, conductor, and composer (born 1967)
Olli Mustonen (born 7 June 1967) is a Finnish pianist, conductor, and composer.
Biography.
Mustonen studied harpsichord and piano from the age of five with Ralf Gothóni and then Eero Heinonen. He studied composition with Einojuhani Rautavaara from 1975 and in 1987 won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which led to his New York City recital debut at Carnegie Hall.
His debut solo piano recording for Decca, of the cycles of preludes by Dmitri Shostakovich and Charles-Valentin Alkan, won both the Gramophone and Edison Awards. In addition to Decca, he has also made recordings for RCA and Ondine, notably of works by Beethoven and various modern Russian composers. Mustonen has performed with numerous major international orchestras and is regarded as "one of the internationally best-known pianists of his generation."
He has been artistic director of the Korsholm Music Festival in 1988 and the Turku Music Festival from 1990 to 1992. He is co-founder and director of the Helsinki Festival Orchestra, and since 2003 has conducted the chamber orchestra Tapiola Sinfonietta.
He performed the world premiere of Rodion Shchedrin's Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Four Russian Songs", 1998), which was dedicated to him, with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, on 11 October 1999.
As a composer, his work shows a "predilection for contrapunctally interwoven compositions and works of the 20th century which take up ideas from the 17th and 18th centuries, for example the Bach arrangements by Ferruccio Busoni and the cycles of preludes and fugues by Shostakovich, or Ludus Tonalis by Paul Hindemith."
Recordings.
As pianist unless otherwise stated.
Compositions.
For a complete list, see the external link for the Finnish Music Information Centre.
His composition style combines elements of the neo-classical, neo-baroque and romantic idioms, and he has also used minimalist patterns: 'The Baroque elements echo Stravinsky's "Pulcinella" or the stylizations of Martinů or Ottorino Respighi; these elements dominate the vivacious and rhythmic fast movements, whereas the slow movements are emphatically Romantic.'
References.
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