FMQ - Kalevi Aho Articles

Instrument and player personalities inform Kalevi Aho’s organic composition process

Instrument and player personalities inform Kalevi Aho’s organic composition process

Instrument and player personalities inform Kalevi Aho’s organic composition process

Kalevi Aho has a natural productivity that is never forced: his composition process flows as naturally as breathing.

Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen

April 26, 2024

Breathtaking virtuosity, frozen melancholy

Breathtaking virtuosity, frozen melancholy

Breathtaking virtuosity, frozen melancholy

"There is an encyclopaedic dimension to the compositional work of Kalevi Aho, manifest in his comprehensive series of solo concertos and solo pieces for different instruments."

Anna Pulkkis

November 30, 2021

Concertante cordial

Concertante cordial

Concertante cordial

"Kalevi Aho has been one of the major concertogenists, if I may coin that word, composing no fewer than 37 since 1981."

Martin Anderson

November 30, 2021

On my music and beyond: Advocating for the human touch

On my music and beyond: Advocating for the human touch

On my music and beyond: Advocating for the human touch

"With my works and with the way I write them, I advocate for the human touch in our increasingly cold and technological world," writes composer Kalevi Aho. This column is part of the series where composers and other music makers write about their music.

Kalevi Aho

January 15, 2021

The role-playing contemporary guitar

The role-playing contemporary guitar

The role-playing contemporary guitar

"Kromos is a rewarding listening experience. This is, naturally, due to Eskelinen’s splendid musicianship, but also much to the diversity of styles and ideas in the chosen six works."

Anna Pulkkis

June 4, 2020

An Abundance of Aho

An Abundance of Aho

An Abundance of Aho

"The music here covers more than forty years, even if Aho’s perennial youthfulness makes that seem improbable. [- -] The performances are as full of feeling as the music, and the recorded sound is bright and immediate."

Martin Anderson

June 4, 2020

Aho’s Animal Vigour

Aho’s Animal Vigour

Aho’s Animal Vigour

"The assurance of the two soloists is matched by performances of pyrotechnical brilliance from the Turku Philharmonic players under their two conductors. The recorded sound is of the usual BIS standard of excellence, and the album as a whole is a valuable addendum to the label’s ongoing representative of this indefatigable figure."

Martin Anderson

December 5, 2018

Meditations of a librettist

Meditations of a librettist

Meditations of a librettist

Author and musician Maritza Núñez has written the librettos for 42 operas to date. In 2018, operas based on her libretti will be performed in Finland, Estonia, Russia and Peru. Here she discusses the art of writing a libretto.

Maritza Núñez

March 22, 2018

Music in illo tempore

Music in illo tempore

Music in illo tempore

The wars fought in the early decades of Finland’s independence cast a long, dark shadow far into the second half of the 20th century. The voice of war in works by Finnish composers speaks of victory, defeat, grief and reconciliation.

Antti Häyrynen

February 14, 2018

Emotionally powerful tailor-made pieces

Emotionally powerful tailor-made pieces

Emotionally powerful tailor-made pieces

When the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra brings together some of the works that over the years have been dedicated to the orchestra’s long-standing Artistic Director and now Honorary Conductor Juha Kangas, it is obviously going to be a collection of emotionally and expressively powerful and excellent music – pieces tailor-made for the orchestra’s deep-rooted sound and intense music-making.

Mats Liljeroos

November 16, 2017

Expressive versatility

Expressive versatility

Expressive versatility

Bram van Sambeek presents two valuable additions to the bassoon repertoire. Kalevi Aho wrote his concerto for Bence Bogányi in 2004, while Sebastian Fagerlund’s concerto Mana (2014) was tailor-made for Sambeek himself.

Mats Liljeroos

May 10, 2016

Finnish opera is alive and well

Finnish opera is alive and well

Finnish opera is alive and well

Lauri Kilpiö

January 10, 2016

Rautavaara’s death leaves a huge void in Finnish contemporary music

Rautavaara’s death leaves a huge void in Finnish contemporary music

Rautavaara’s death leaves a huge void in Finnish contemporary music

"Rautavaara's original output and considerable success serve to remind us of a principle of his that applies to all composers of whichever generation: Dare to be yourself in your music." Kalevi Aho writes about Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928-2016).

Kalevi Aho

January 9, 2016

All hear the holy nature

All hear the holy nature

All hear the holy nature

Only love and death can compete with nature as the most common topic in music. In the aftermath of environmental crises, the relationship between music and nature has changed radically. How can music influence our environmental consciousness and conscience? The music of contemporary composer Kalevi Aho and psychedelic rock band Hexvessel show in two distinct ways.

Juha Torvinen

May 4, 2013

New winds in Estonian music

New winds in Estonian music

New winds in Estonian music

Estonia is near Finland, but Estonian and Finnish contemporary music differ considerably from one another. Composer Kalevi Aho has acquainted himself with Estonian music for instance at Estonian contemporary music seminars in 1995 and 1997 and observed that Estonian composers cannot be bracketed into the same categories as their Finnish colleagues.

Kalevi Aho

January 12, 1998

The poet of the opera

The poet of the opera

The poet of the opera

The most prolific and most popular opera librettist in Finland today is a writer, poet and musician from Peru: Maritza Núñez. The opera Frida y Diego by Kalevi Aho, commissioned by the Sibelius Academy, is to be premiered at the Helsinki Musiikkitalo in October 2014.

Matti Tuomisto

January 8, 1985

Kalevi Aho: a composer of moods

Kalevi Aho: a composer of moods

Kalevi Aho: a composer of moods

"Art should be able to stir us, to wake us from our dreaming and our torpor, so that we should be forced to take a stand on the work and explain to ourselves what it means. If a composition is capable of this, then it has at the same time been able to activate the listener both emotionally and intellectually."

Kimmo Korhonen

January 8, 1985

Kalevi Aho: “Music must communicate”

Kalevi Aho: “Music must communicate”

Kalevi Aho: “Music must communicate”

For Aho, composing music is an inevitable way of contemplating existential questions and of taking responsability for what is happening in the world.

Juha Torvinen

January 8, 1985