Ilmari Hannikainen
3 Valses mignonnes, Op.175 Piano Pieces, Op.20A la fontaine, Op.12 No.2IltaImpromptuKansan tapaanKeskustelu, Op.11bMélodie oubliée, Op.12 No.1Petits poèmes, Op.14Piano Pieces, Op.4WikipediaToivo Ilmari Hannikainen (19 October 1892, in Jyväskylä – 25 July 1955, in Kuhmoinen) was a Finnish composer.
Hannikainen was the son of Pekka Juhani Hannikainen and the brother of Väinö Hannikainen, both of whom were composers and of Tauno Hannikainen who was a conductor. After studying at the University of Helsinki (1911–14), he became a pupil of
Franz Schreker at the Musikakademie in Vienna, and continued his studies with
Alexander Siloti in Saint Petersburg (1915–17) and with
Alfred Cortot in Paris (1919). Returning to Finland, he taught piano at the Helsinki Conservatory and later gained a Professorship at the Sibelius Academy.
Hannikainen steered Finnish classical music from late Romanticism towards Impressionism. In addition to his piano miniatures, which best illustrated this development, he composed one opera, one piano concerto, one piano quartet, lieder, and film scores (notably, Sången om den eldröda blomman, Sweden, 1934).
Hannikainen drowned during a sailing trip in Kuhmoinen in 1955. Some musical colleagues, like
Aarre Merikanto, considered his death a suicide. He is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki.