ABSTRACT
Kokkonen began his musical career not as a composer but, rather, as a concert pianist and during the 1940s and 1950s developed a level of recognition in Finland, particularly as a performer of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Mozart. Kokkonen's performances also included Bach, and it was from his first-hand experience with his keyboard works that Kokkonen developed his life-long admiration and passion for the Baroque master's compositions. This chapter examines a handful of Kokkonen's keyboard works: aside from two relatively minor organ compositions, three piano works are discussed: the second composition he ever penned, the 1938 Pielavesv, the 1953 Sonatina, a work appearing at the threshold of Kokkonen's stylistic change to dodecaphonic composition; and his Five Bagatelles from 1968, a work written after his third symphony, another watershed work in his oeuvre.
