Olli Mustonen
Piano / *1967, Finland
Olli Mustonen is a pianist, but he is much more than that. He himself simply says: musician. He is pianist, composer and conductor all in one. To strictly separate the individual tasks from one another makes no sense to him – and so he excels in all three.
His musical influences? Everything he has ever heard in his life, be it creaking doors, car horns or music. He performed his first piano concerto at the age of twelve. By then he was already taking composition lessons from Einojuhani Rautavaara, the great Finnish composer of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Olli Mustonen's first instrument, however, was not the piano but the harpsichord: perhaps that is where this crystal-clear sound comes from, this almost percussive touch on the concert grand piano. This is certainly where his fascination for baroque counterpoint and for modern works using this technique comes from: Bach and Shostakovich are naturally side by side in his programs. And he himself also writes a toccata or sonata.
He is a gifted pianist, as if by chance, and that is part of his craft. It enables him to approach even well-known works in a fresh and original way: «Every performance must be a premiere,» he says. This is precisely what Olli Mustonen is known for His musical influences? Everything he has ever heard in his life, be it creaking doors, car horns or music. He performed his first piano concerto at the age of twelve. By then he was already taking composition lessons from Einojuhani Rautavaara, the great Finnish composer of the 20th and 21st centuries.
