Anssi Karttunen cellist

The Finnish cellist Anssi Karttunen leads a busy career as a soloist and chamber-music player, performing extensively all over the world. He performs on modern cello, classical and baroque cellos and on violoncello piccolo. Anssi Karttunen performs all the standard cello works, but has also discovered many forgotten masterpieces and arranged a number of pieces for cello. He is a passionate advocate of contemporary music and his collaboration with composers has led him to give over 90 world premieres of works by composers such as Magnus Lindberg, Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luca Francesconi and Tan Dun. Karttunen has had a number of Concertos written for him, 18 in all: Magnus Lindberg's Cello Concerto in 1999, Esa-Pekka Salonen's Concerto "Mania" in 2000. Martin Matalon's Cello Concerto 2001 and in 2004 Luca Francesconi's Cello Concerto "Rest". Kaija Saariaho's Concerto "Notes on Light" was a Boston Symphony Orchestra commission for Anssi Karttunen and Los Angeles Philharmonic has commissioned a Concerto from Oliver Knussen. Some of the orchestras Karttunen performs with : Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra. Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish, London Sinfonietta. Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. DSO Berlin, SWR Orchestra, Berliner Symphoniker, Ensemble Modern. Goncertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Residentie Orchestra, Dutch Radio Symphony, Dutch Radio Philharmonic, Dutch Radio Chamber orchestra. NHK Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra. Barcelona Opera Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Pamplona Orchestra, Barcelona 216 Ensemble. Swedish Radio Orchestra, Danish Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic. RAI Torino, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Flanders Philharmonic. Finnish Radio Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Avanti!. Karttunen performs at major festivals in Europe: Edinburgh, Salzburg, Lockenhaus, Spoleto, Berlin, Venice, Montpellier, Strasbourg, Helsinki etc.. The CD´s of Anssi Karttunen range from the complete Beethoven works for cello and fortepiano (on period instruments) and 20th-Century works for solo cello to concertos with London Sinfonietta and Los Angeles Philharmonic with Esa-Pekka Salonen. Sony Classical issued the Concertos of Lindberg, Saariaho and Salonen on CD. Deutsche Grammophon issued a DVD of Tan Dun's The Map for cello, video and Orchestra. He appears on the first ever contemporary music CD-ROM: Prisma, on music of Kaija Saariaho. He is a founding member of www.petals.org, a non-profit organisation for the production and sale of CDs on the Internet. Anssi Karttunen has also appeared as conductor, he conducted Lindberg's Kraft in Antwerp on a very short notice. He also conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic cello ensemble and the Gaida Ensemble in Vilnius. Between 1994 and 1998 Mr Karttunen was the artistic director of the Avanti! Chamber orchestra. He was the artistic director of the 1995 Helsinki Biennale and the Suvisoitto-festival in Porvoo, Finland from 1994 to 1997. From 1999 to 2005 Anssi Karttunen was the principal cellist of the London Sinfonietta. His teachers included Erkki Rautio, William Pleeth, Jacqueline du Pré and Tibor de Machula. Concertos written for Anssi Karttunen:  Magnus Lindberg Zona Paavo Heininen Cello Concerto Magnus Lindberg Kraft (with Toimii Ensemble) Magnus Lindberg Duo Concertante (with Clarinet) Usko Meriläinen A Letter to a Cellist Jean-Luc Darbellay Concerto Olli Kortekangas Konzertstück (with Clarinet) Kaija Saariaho Amers Kaija Saariaho .. à la fumée (with alto flute) Tan Dun Yi1: Concerto for Cello Magnus Lindberg Cello Concerto Esa-Pekka Salonen Mania Martin Matalon Trame III, Concerto pour violoncelle Luca Francesconi Concerto (2004) Mary Bellamy Within Dreams I Antonio Pinho Vargas Six Portraits of Pain Kaija Saariaho Notes on light (2007) Kaija Saariaho Mirage, for soprano, cello and orchestra (2008) Future commissions:  Oliver Knussen Concerto (for the Los Angeles Philharmonic 2008) Ricardo Nillni Work for cello, harp and ensemble (2008) Magnus Lindberg Concerto II (2009) Fred Lerdahl Work for cello and ensemble (2009) INTERNATIONAL CELLO FESTIVAL, Manchester 2004 "..More awe was to come, with Lindberg's Cello Concerto, performed by the Finn Anssi Karttunen, for whom the composer wrote it. Lindberg's devilishly unplayable score takes the soloist and his cello to the point of collapse with its lightning runs, unearthly screeches and numerous other molestations. Then it all does collapse, into moments of unbearable time-stopping stillness - during one of which Rumon Gamba held his score frozen in mid-page-turn for what seemed like minutes, as if terrified of breaking the cruel spell Karttunen had cast." The Times, London, May 8, 2004 He stands, and sits, to conquer Cellist Anssi Karttunen shows he's among the world's greats; he conducts too. Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times 16.1.2003 The world's two most charismatic, most beloved cellists are, without question, Mstislav Rostropovich and Yo-Yo Ma. But for a growing number of cognoscenti, this spectacular Finnish cellist has no equal, and it was heartening that his guest appearance with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group sold out on Tuesday night. Karttunen wasn't, to be honest, the only attraction; the program ended with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting the West Coast premiere of "Mania," the dazzling chamber cello concerto he wrote for his longtime friend and colleague in 2000. But it was mainly Karttunen's night. He conducted, as well as played. His third hat was as arranger; he led the first performance of his version for eight cellos of a piano etude by Magnus Lindberg. In all, it was a night to dive deep into the sound of the cello, a sound Karttunen called, in a preconcert discussion, so beautiful you never want it to end. Preceding "Mania," there was cello and nothing but, with five relatively short works for ensembles of six, seven and eight cellos. The opener was Pierre Boulez's "Messagequisse", a score from 1976 for solo cello against an ensemble of six cellos. Dedicated to Paul Sacher, it is a quick series of bracing coded messages to the late Swiss philanthropist, using the letters (translated into musical pitches) of his last name as the basic material. The music has a breathless, fleeting quality, always in dizzying motion but, hummingbird-like, seeming still and just out of grasp. It leaves behind a long, lingering impression. Salonen conducted as if born to the style, making one wonder why he conducts so little of Boulez's music these days. Putting down his bow, Karttunen conducted Hans Werner Henze's "Trauer-Ode für Margaret Geddes," Luciano Berio's "Korót," and Karttunen's own arrangement for eight cellos of a piano etude by Magnus Lindberg. The Henze, a funeral ode in memory of a German princess, is thickly scored for six cellos, almost decadent in its bittersweet harmonies and Bach-haunted. The Lindberg etude is fantastical, flamboyant music, at times sounding as lavish as the richest Richard Strauss in this cello-intensive arrangement. Berio's piece (korót means beam in an ancient language, but Karttunen forgot which one), also for eight cellos, buzzes ethereally and beautifully. Karttunen conducted everything by dutifully beating time, but he knows what cellos can do and managed to inspire gorgeous playing from the Philharmonic's cello section. "Mania" is one of Salonen's most attractive scores, with a burbling 14-piece ensemble conveying a series of changing landscapes. Against this, Karttunen plays wonderfully rhapsodic melodies and exciting bravura passages, and he does so with cool abandon, impossibly contradictory as that may sound. The piece lasts about 18 minutes and doesn't, for a second, linger, although it is seldom quite as manic as the title suggests. Salonen has said that Sibelius was an influence and there are nods to Ravel and Debussy in the colorful orchestration and to Stravinsky in the frantic closing pages. But the stronger impression is Salonen's own personality in music that is clever and entertaining on the surface but also complex in a deeply intriguing and satisfying way. The performance was full of joy.