FMQ - Pekka Kuusisto Articles

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto and snowboarder Enni Rukajärvi – a conversation about music, sports and competition

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto and snowboarder Enni Rukajärvi – a conversation about music, sports and competition

Violinist Pekka Kuusisto and snowboarder Enni Rukajärvi – a conversation about music, sports and competition

How similar are the fields of music and sport? Violinist Pekka Kuusisto and snowboarder Enni Rukajärvi discuss performance, art, competition and overcoming oneself. This article is part of a series that has previously featured composers Kaija Saariaho and Olli Virtaperko discussing composition, and pianist Kirill Kozlovski and runner Topi Raitanen discussing competition.

Loviisa Pihlakoski

February 14, 2023

Contemporary music can be political - Cecilia Damström’s Requiem is one of the key works at the Ung Nordisk Musik festival

Contemporary music can be political - Cecilia Damström’s Requiem is one of the key works at the Ung Nordisk Musik festival

Contemporary music can be political - Cecilia Damström’s Requiem is one of the key works at the Ung Nordisk Musik festival

The music of Cecilia Damström stems from expressiveness and the desire to make a difference. In music, the tiniest gestures can come across as political statements. At the Ung Nordisk Musik festival in Tampere in August 2020, Damström’s Requiem for our Earth puts the theme of this year’s event – Music Ecology – up front. “I was able to include an unusually large number of themes important for me in this Requiem,” says the composer.

Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen

August 20, 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

Music from the Moominvalley

Music from the Moominvalley

Music from the Moominvalley

The first Moomin book Småtrollen och den stora översvämningen (The Moomins and the Great Flood) was published 75 years ago. To mark the anniversary, FMQ gives an overview of music that has been composed over the years based on and inspired by Moomin stories.

Laura Korhonen

January 31, 2020

Breathtaking double-team improv

Breathtaking double-team improv

Breathtaking double-team improv

“In Tölöläb, Elifantree have met their match, leading to their most ambitious, mature and cohesive album so far.”

Wif Stenger

November 7, 2019

Paper or pad? – a look at digital sheet music

Paper or pad? – a look at digital sheet music

Paper or pad? – a look at digital sheet music

Digitisation is progressing everywhere in our society, and the realm of classical and contemporary sheet music is no exception. Software and platforms are being developed for the purpose of replacing printed copies with digital files, and professionals in various fields are collaborating to produce an effective end result. What do musicians think about all this?

Auli Särkiö-Pitkänen

June 20, 2019

Crossing the ocean - Musica nova Helsinki 2019

Crossing the ocean - Musica nova Helsinki 2019

Crossing the ocean - Musica nova Helsinki 2019

This year, the Musica nova Helsinki 2019 festival presented a trans-Atlantic menu. The programme plumbed deep waters and explored lovely landscapes on a sea that knows no bounds. All this begs the question: are we driftwood, or are we actively charting a course to the future?

Merja Hottinen

February 15, 2019

Three decades of innovation by Tapani Rinne

Three decades of innovation by Tapani Rinne

Three decades of innovation by Tapani Rinne

Known as a fearless sound explorer and protean saxophonist, Tapani Rinne introduced jazz to ambient and techno years before it became a worldwide trend. After game-changing albums with RinneRadio, Wimme and others, he continues to blaze a trail of innovation.

Petri Silas

May 9, 2018

Coherent kaleidoscopes

Coherent kaleidoscopes

Coherent kaleidoscopes

Ives’s Concord Sonata often requires its performer to despatch inhuman quantities of notes at superhuman speed, but Ahonen scoops them up like a kid building sandcastles, with no loss of clarity or of dynamic or rhythmic control.

Martin Anderson

November 16, 2017

Gatecrashing the Nordic Music Days

Gatecrashing the Nordic Music Days

Gatecrashing the Nordic Music Days

The huge tide of humanity that almost overwhelmed the 2017 NMD was also its triumph: a characteristic gift from London, European capital of creative curiosity and of the big crowd.

Andrew Mellor

October 5, 2017

London Calling: Nordic Music Days On Tour

London Calling: Nordic Music Days On Tour

London Calling: Nordic Music Days On Tour

In 1980, the Nordic Music Days were held in Helsinki but with some non-Nordic guests at the party: a deputation of composers from Great Britain. It has taken us Brits nearly four decades to return the favour, but in September 2017 we will do so in some style as the entire four-day festiva is transplanted to London.

Andrew Mellor

September 27, 2017

Tüür’s Integration of Energies

Tüür’s Integration of Energies

Tüür’s Integration of Energies

The two clarinet concertos in this album demonstrate Tüür’s ability to suggest huge tectonic forces at work under dancing or drifting textures in higher instrumental registers.

Martin Anderson

May 17, 2017

Chamber music, communality and eco-social justice: the case of Our Festival

Chamber music, communality and eco-social justice: the case of Our Festival

Chamber music, communality and eco-social justice: the case of Our Festival

"Through its themes and concert practices, Our Festival keeps building on the experience of living in a shared world and facing common problems."

Susanna Välimäki

October 3, 2016

It’s fun at the top

It’s fun at the top

It’s fun at the top

Pekka Kuusisto is an explorer on whose world map music has no borders. He is equally at home in concert halls and cosy clubs. The joy of music is in interaction. For the rapidly ageing world of classical music, personalities like Kuusisto are oases in a desert.

Karoliina Vesa

November 3, 2014

Cosmopolitan heroes

Cosmopolitan heroes

Cosmopolitan heroes

"Pekka Kuusisto astounds the listener once again with his agility in Lindberg’s Violin Concerto (2006), a virtuoso work that is one of his most successful scores."

Jaani Länsiö

February 12, 2013

The two lives of Jaakko Kuusisto

The two lives of Jaakko Kuusisto

The two lives of Jaakko Kuusisto

At closer range, Jaakko and Pekka Kuusisto do not even look alike. But it's been hard to convince the media that one is Jaakko and the other is Pekka (see VMQ 3/96). To start with, they have both in turn taken first prize in the national Kuopio Violin Competition. Then in 1990 Jaakko came fourth in the Sibelius Violin Competition at the age of 16, to be followed five years later by Pekka, who hit the jackpot when he was 19.

Anu Karlson

January 6, 1997