Iiro Rantala

\n \nIiro Rantala plays the piano with “emotional magnetism and musical intelligence.” He has a “virtuosic prowess as an improviser capable of enormous idiomatic and emotional range.” This praise from the American magazine Downbeat’s review of the Finnish pianist’s third studio-recorded solo album for ACT, My Finnish Calendar (2019), sums up the astonishing variety which people who know his playing well might almost start to take for granted. This is the emotional and stylistic versatility which Ranta-la brings to the live solo recital. It is a form he is drawn to strongly; there can be very few pianists who have explored the art of solo playing quite as intensively and consistently as Rantala. A typical recital will contain, among other things, pieces from his previous solo albums for ACT - ‘Lost Heroes’, ‘My Working Class Hero’ and ‘My Finnish Calendar’. As he explains, “I like the form of the solo recital because of the freedom and responsibility I have. Freedom comes from the fact of being alone on stage and responsibility from the fact that I can’t really rely on anything, except myself.” \n \n