Selim Palmgren

Selim Palmgren ( born February 16, 1878 in Pori, † December 16, 1951 in Helsinki) was a Finnish composer and pianist.

Life

Palmgren studied from 1895 to 1899 at the Conservatory of Helsinki, then in Berlin and Weimar with Ferruccio Busoni, Conrad Ansorge and William Berger. 1906-1909 to studies included in Italy. 1909 to 1912 he headed the Symphony Orchestra of the Music Society in Turku, and then worked as a composer and pianist. With his wife, the singer Maikki Järnefelt - Palmgren, he performed abroad, so from 1911 to 1914 in Berlin and Northern Germany. After the death of his first wife in 1929 he married the student Minna Talwik.

1921 to 1926 he taught in the United States at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester (New York). From 1927 he was a teacher of piano and composition at the Conservatory of Helsinki, the later Sibelius Academy. There he was professor of composition from 1939. Inter alia Joonas Kokkonen was his pupil. He also held executive positions in various institutions of the Finnish music scene and also worked as a music critic.

Work

Palmgren wrote five piano concertos, as his main works are (No. 1 in 1903, No. 2 The River in 1913, No. 3 Metamorphoses 1916, No. 4 Huhtikuu 1926, No. 5 1941), orchestral works ( including images from Finland, Op 24 1908 ), about 350 piano pieces (mostly miniatures partly salon adhere character that it also attributes such as " Scandinavian Chopin " or " Nordic Schumann " brought in ) and the Opera Daniel Hjort ( premiered 1910). He also composed more than 200 works for chorus (especially for men's chorus) and songs.

His style is late romantic with impressionistic influences, and refers in rather stylized, sounded picturesque way, Scandinavian folk music.