Robert Kajanus (
Helsinki, 2 December 1856 – Helsinki, 6 July 1933) was a
Finnish conductor and composer of Swedish descent.
Life
Robert Kajanus was the most prominent Finnish composer before
Jean Sibelius. His music drew on the
folk legends of the Finnish people. He studied music theory with Richard Faltin and violin with Gustaf Niemann in
Helsinki, with
Hans Richter,
Carl Reinecke and
Salomon Jadassohn in
Leipzig, and
Johan Svendsen in
Paris.
He worked in
Dresden in the years immediately after his graduation, and returned to Helsinki in 1882. He founded the first permanent orchestra in Finland: the Helsinki Philharmonic Society (later to become the
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Finland's national orchestra). He brought the orchestra to a very high performance standard very quickly, so that they were able to give quite credible performances of the standard late classical/mid-romantic repertory. Kajanus led the Helsinki Philharmonic for 50 years, and among the milestones of that history was the first performance in Finland of
Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9 in 1888.
Kajanus was appointed director of music at the
University of Helsinki in 1897 and remained in the post for the next 29 years, a period in which he had a major impact on music education in his native country. He was also the founder of the
Nordic Music Festival in 1919. He received many decorations, including the French
Légion d'honneur.
Kajanus was the father of the
harpists Lilly Kajanus-Blenner...
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