Olli mustonen plays shchedrin piano concerto no 4 video 2013
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 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 1990-1992. He is co-founder and director of the Helsinki Festival Orchestra, and since 2003 has conducted the chamber orchestra Tapiola Sinfonietta.
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 (e.g. the Bach arrangements by Ferruccio Busoni and the cycles of preludes and fugues by Paul Hindemith or Shostakovich)."
A Portrait of Olli Mustonen [as composer and pianist]: Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra (Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra/Juha Kangas); Six Bagatelles for Piano; Three Preludes for Piano; Ballade for Piano; On all Fours for Piano Four Hands (Raija Kerppo, hands 3 and 4); Three Simple Pieces for Cello and Piano (Martti Rousi, cello); Gavotte for Piano; Two Meditations for Piano; Toccata for Piano, String Quartet and Double Bass (Orion String Quartet; Esko Laine, double bass) - Finlandia Records (1989/1990)
Shostakovich: 24 Preludes, op.34; Charles-Valentin Alkan: 25 Preludes, op.31 - London Records (1991)
Stravinsky: Piano Concerto; Capriccio; Movements for Piano & Orchestra (Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor; Deutscher-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin) - London Records (1994)
Beethoven: Piano Concerto, op.61a after the Violin Concerto; Bach: Piano Concerto BWV 1054 (Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie/Jukka-Pekka Saraste) - Decca Records (1994)
Prokofiev: Violin Sonatas 1 & 2, Music for Violin and Piano (Joshua Bell, violin) - Decca Records (1995)
Jehkin Iivana - sonata for guitar (2004) or piano (2006)
Sonata for cello and piano (2006)
Symphony No. 1 Tuuri (2012) for baritone and orchestra
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.'