(Pielisjärvi, June 21, 1885 – Helsinki, September 20, 1957)
Heino Kaski belonged to the generation of Finnish composers that followed immediately after Sibelius. Though partly eclipsed by the great master, Kaski discovered a niche for himself in piano miniatures and solo songs. His approachable and melodically profuse piano pieces in particular were highly popular in their day, and in this respect he followed in the footsteps of Oskar Merikanto.
Kaski took up music with such dedication at an early age that he left secondary school after his fourth year and moved to Helsinki to study at the church organist school and orchestra school. He also studied composition privately with Erkki Melartin and briefly with Sibelius himself. Kaski began his public career at a joint composition concert with Toivo Saarenpää in spring 1910. Grants enabled him to study further in Berlin with Paul Juon in 1911-1914 and with Otto Taubman in 1920-1924. He also studied privately with Selim Palmgren.
In the course of his exceptionally long studies, Kaski was invested with unusually great expectations, which he never fully realized. He was unable to dedicate himself to composition, since he had to make a living as a piano and voice teacher. In later years, he said: “I would have preferred to work only as a composer, but it seems only a few Finnish composers are fortunate enough to be able to do so. It is probably due to arduous schoolwork that I have not had the energy later in life to concentrate on orchestral music, which I was very much interested in earlier.” (Kimmo Korhonen (2000) translation by Jaakko Mäntyjärvi)
Web: www.fimic.fi/kaski