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America had Bing Crosby, Britain Al Bowlly, France Maurice Chevalier. In the pre-war years, every country had a charming gentleman singer who entertained us on records, radio and the screen. But lucky Finland had everything twofold. We had the Malmstén brothers, Georg and Eugen, the bright singing stars of the thirties.

"...it is a stunning album by one of the most interesting artists in the Finnish avant-garde underground. Throughout the album the listener is invited to witness how solitary and sparse elements create majestic soundscapes and dense emotional condensations."

Despite repeated and persistent efforts spanning a century, Helsinki has never had a true orchestral concert hall until this year. The new Music Centre, opening in August 2011, is the first ever venue in Finland's capital city specifically designed and intended for the performing of symphonic music.

"What can you actually play on the old folk instrument called the jouhikko (bowed lyre)? Ilkka Heinonen’s answer to that is: anything!"

The most prolific and most popular opera librettist in Finland today is a writer, poet and musician from Peru: Maritza Núñez. The opera Frida y Diego by Kalevi Aho, commissioned by the Sibelius Academy, is to be premiered at the Helsinki Musiikkitalo in October 2014.

Kimmo Hakola writes about three opera performances at the Helsinki Festival 2015 and analyses the current state of the opera in Finland.

"Esko Jarvela and Tero Hyvaluoma are definitely among the best fiddlers of their generation in Finland (both born at the beginning of the 1980s). Their playing style has the distinctive folk music phrasing and swing, but they seem to be at ease with almost any musical genre. When going solo, they prove themselves talented composers as well...

With the works he wrote in the 1920s Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958) together with Ernest Pingoud and Väinö Raitio, planted the seed of modernism in Finnish music. The seed germinated in spite of adverse cultural conditions at the time, but only later generations were to reap the harvest.

"Jaakko Eino Kalevi succeeds in building a semi-surreal parallel world, a stress-free zone in which secular troubles turn into mojitos."