Robert Kajanus

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Robert Kajanus (2 December 1856 - 6 July 1933) was a Finnish conductor and composer.

He studied with Talsin and Niemann in Helsinki, with Hans Richter, Carl Reinecke and Salomon Jadassohn in Leipzig, and Johann Svendsen in Paris. In the 1880s he put the Helsinki Orchestra (later to become the Finnish National Orchestra) on a permanent footing. Hearing his Aino Symphony stimulated Jean Sibelius to write his Kullervo Symphony.

Kajanus later became a champion of Sibelius and other Finnish composers. He commissioned the writing of Sibelius's En Saga, and the symphonic poem Pohjola's Daughter was dedicated to Kajanus. He was the first to make recordings of any of Sibelius's symphonies (the first two symphonies were recorded in the early 1930s, with the London Symphony Orchestra). He was considered an authority on the interpretation of Sibelius's music, and he and Sibelius were close friends; this was compromised in 1898 when Sibelius was appointed to a university post for which Kajanus was himself a candidate. Kajanus appealed and the decision was overturned. However they reconciled for the orchestra's tour of Europe in 1900, where they appeared at the Exposition Universelle at the invitation of the French government.

Kajanus made the first commercial recordings of Sibelius's First, Second, Third and Fifth symphonies.

He received many decorations, including the French Légion d'Honneur.

Robert Kajanus is also the great-grandfather of composer Georg Kajanus, creator of the bands Eclection, Sailor (band) and Data. Sailor had considerable success across Europe and Australia in the Seventies with such hits as 'Girls, Girls, Girls' and 'A Glass Of Champagne'.