ABSTRACT
The Piano Trio was written in 1948 and can be justifiably labeled Joonas Kokkonen's opus 1. Ine trio is one of the most formally unambiguous and harmonically clear-cut works in Kokkonen's oeuvre; along with the Piano Quintet, it displays the most extensive influence from his early attraction to Hindemith's music. The 1953 Piano Quintet ranks as among the most significant of Kokkonen's pre-dodecaphonic works, one that warrants a place alongside the other chamber pieces from Kokkonen's mature period. Although Kokkonen began work on both the first string quartet and Symphony No. 1 during the spring of 1958, the quartet was completed first, in February of 1959; it was premiered on 5 March 1959 in Helsinki by the Helsinki Quartet. Kokkonen began work on his second quartet in late 1964. His original intention was that this quartet be a single-movement passacaglia. However, an illness during February of 1965 halted progress on the work for several months.
