Documentary

Legato, The World of Piano: Pöntinen

A portrait of Roland Pöntinen

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Cast

Roland Pöntinen — Pianist

Program notes

We live in the "renaissance of the piano," as the New York Times put it in summer 2007.

A new generation has made the piano popular again: pianists with a passion for virtuosity and a willingness to expand their repertoire. In addition to the usual classics they perform formerly scorned works or they discover neglected composers.

"Legato" is a series dedicated to presenting some of this new movement's most fascinating pianists – their individual approaches, their fresh ideas and their music. Every episode portrays an artist and shows an aspect of the world of the piano. Viewers meet the artists, get to know their styles, their methods of working their personal idiosyncrasies. The sum of these portraits provides viewers with an overall picture of the art of the pianist.

The Swedish pianist Roland Pöntinen was born in 1963. He made his debut at 17 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and has since performed with the Major orchestras worldwide. Thanks to an insatiable musical appetite and a stupendous technique he has acquired a vast repertoire, ranging from the Baroque period to contemporary music.

Works by:

  • Jean-Philippe Rameau,
  • Francois Couperin,
  • Frédéric Chopin,
  • Isaac Albéniz,
  • Ferruccio Busoni,
  • Maurice Ravel,
  • Sergei Rachmaninov,
  • Kaija Saariaho

A closer look: featured composers

Further listening: featured works

Appears in

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