Hannikainen, Arvo
Hannikainen Toivo Ilmari, *19 October 1892 Jyväskylä, †25 July 1955 Kuhmoinen (Oulun province, Eastern Finland), Finnish pianist, teacher and composer, son of Pekka. He completed many years of musical studies: in 1911–13, in Helsinki with E. Rängman-Björlin (piano) and E. Melartin (composition), in 1913–14, in Vienna, among others, at F. Schreker, in 1916–17 in St. Petersburg, among others, with A. Siloti, and in 1919 in Paris with A. Cortot; in the following years, he consulted again with Siloti in Antwerp. He made his debut in 1914 in Helsinki, and from 1921, he frequently performed with the Queen’s Hall Orchestra in London. He also played chamber music in the Hannikainen Trio, with the brothers Tauno and Arvo. In 1939, he became a professor of the piano class at the Academy of Music J. Sibelius in Helsinki. He was one of the most outstanding Finnish pianists; his interpretations of works by Sibelius and especially Rachmaninoff were appreciated. His playing was dominated by the features of the Siloti school: dynamism, precision and transparency. I. Hannikainen’s compositions were created on the margins of his pianistic activity; he composed, among others, Piano concerto op. 7, piano and chamber pieces, solo songs with piano and orchestra, a stage painting Talkootanssit (‘harvest festival dances’) and film music.