Leonard Hokanson


Leonard Hokanson was an American pianist who achieved prominence in Europe as a soloist and chamber musician.

Early life and education

Born in Vinalhaven, Maine, he attended Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts and Bennington College in Vermont, where he received a master of arts degree with a major in music. He made his concert debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of eighteen. He was drafted into the U.S. Army after graduate school, and in December 1955, he was a private performing in the 11th Airborne Division Band at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Later, he was posted to Augsburg, Germany.

Career

He achieved early recognition as a performer in Europe, serving as a soloist with such orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and the Vienna Symphony. He was awarded the Steinway Prize of Boston and was a prizewinner at the Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, Italy. His numerous international music festival appearances included Aldeburgh, Berlin, Echternach, Lucerne, Prague, Ravinia, Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Tanglewood, and Vienna.
One of the last pupils of Artur Schnabel, Hokanson also studied with Karl-Ulrich Schnabel, Claude Frank, and Julian DeGray. He was professor of piano at the Frankfurt [University of Music and Performing Arts] for ten years before taking a position as professor of piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington in 1986. He was also a permanent guest professor at the Tokyo College of Music.
He was a founding member of the Odeon Trio and as a chamber musician performed with such ensembles as the Vermeer Quartet, the St. Lawrence Quartet, the Ensemble Villa Musica, and the Wind Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic and frequently performed duo recitals with the violinist Miriam Fried, the clarinetist James Campbell, and the horn player Hermann Baumann. As a pianist for song recitals, he played with numerous singers, including Martina Arroyo, Grace Bumbry, Melanie Diener, Edith Mathis, Edda Moser, and Hermann Prey. His collaboration with Prey extended over 25 years. He was also resident pianist with Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine.
Hokanson's many recordings include the complete piano works of Walter Piston, Haydn sonatas, Mozart concertos, and Brahms intermezzi, as well as Schubert's complete works for violin and piano with Edith Peinemann, Brahms' sonatas for clarinet and piano with James Campbell, Beethoven's complete songs with Hermann Prey and Pamela Coburn, the complete piano trios of Brahms, Dvořák, and Schubert, previously unrecorded early piano works of Schubert, and Norbert Burgmüller's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.
In 2001 Hokanson became professor emeritus at Indiana University but continued teaching solo piano, chamber music, and a German art song class at the school until his death in Bloomington, Indiana, from pancreatic cancer on March 21, 2003.

Discography

;Harpsichord
Bach
  • Brandenburg Concerto Nr. 5
  • Musical Offering
  • Orchestra Suites
  • Concertos for Oboe/Oboe and Violin
Telemann
  • Fantasies for Harpsichord
  • St. Mark Passion
  • St. Matthew Passion
Baroque Airs and Adagios
Il Canone di Pachelbel, Telemann, Vivaldi, etc.
;Solo Piano
Beethoven/Liszt
  • Symphony Nr. 8
Brahms
  • Intermezzi Op. 117, 118, 119; Scherzo Op. 4
Burgmüller
  • Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
Haydn
  • Piano Sonatas
Mozart
  • Piano Concerto in E-flat, K. 271
  • Piano Concertos in E-flat, K. 271 and G, K. 453
Piston
  • Complete Works for Piano
Schubert
  • Sonata in A, Op.Posth.
  • "Grazer" Fantasy
  • The Young Schubert
;Chamber Music:
Bach
  • Sonatas for Cello and Piano
David Baker
  • Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
Beethoven
  • Sonata for Piano and Cello, Op.102/1; Variations for Piano and Cello
  • Works for Flute and Piano
  • Piano Trios Op.70/1 and 2
  • Piano Trios
Beethoven, Czerny, Kruft, Strauss
  • Works for Horn and Piano
Brahms
Brahms, Franck
  • Sonatas for Cello and Piano
Brahms, Genzmer
  • Piano Trios
Brahms, Jenner
  • Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano
Brahms, Shostakovich
  • Piano Trios
Chopin, Martinu
  • Sonatas for Cello and Piano
Dvořák
  • Piano Trios and Quartets
Bernhard Heiden
  • Sonata for Piano, Four Hands
Mozart
  • 6 Piano Trios
  • Early Piano Trios, K. 10–15
  • Piano Quartets
Pflüger
  • Impeto
Piston
  • Piano Quintet
Saint-Saëns
  • Chamber Music for Winds
Schubert
  • Chamber Music for Violin
  • Piano Trios
  • Trout Quintet; Nottorno
  • Schubertiade 1977 – Vienna
Schumann
  • Sonatas, Op. 105 and 121; Romances No. 1–3, Op. 94
Spohr, Volkmann
  • Piano Trios
Strauss
  • Piano Trios
Tanejev, Tcherepnin
  • Piano Trios
Weber
  • Grand Duo Concertant, Op. 48, 7 Variations op. 33
Music in the Salzburg Mozart House

;Lieder:
Beethoven
  • Complete Songs
Cornelius
  • Christmas Songs, Vaterunser
Mendelssohn, Liszt, Franz, Wagner
  • Romantic Songs
Schubert
  • Die schöne Müllerin
  • Schwanengesang
  • Schubertiade Hohenems 1977
  • Songs
Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, etc.
  • Love Songs
Schubert, Schumann, Brahms
  • Songs
Schubert, Schumann
  • Songs, Dichterliebe
Schumann
  • Dichterliebe; Liederkreis, Op. 24
  • Liederkreis, Op. 39; Kerner-Lieder
  • Songs
Silcher
  • Songs
Strauss, Debussy
  • Songs
Weber
  • Songs
Wolf
  • Songs
  • Die liebe Seligkeit – Folksongs
  • Baroque Songs and Arias
  • Viennese Songs from Schubert's Time