From the Ruhr Piano Festival at Folkwang Hochschule Essen: Roland Pöntinen performs Kaija Saariaho's "Ballade".
Part 5 of the Roland Pöntinen recital, from the series "Legato - The World of the Piano".

Kaija Saariaho - "Ballade"

Roland Pöntinen - piano

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About "Legato - World of the Piano"

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 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.

Roland Pöntinen acquired his mastery quietly, with seamless consistency in his native Sweden, and since his debut in 1981, he has become known beyond his native North in the more cultivated international piano world.

For this recital, Pöntinen put together a program that could be a kind of self-portrait: he dares a lot, because apart from a single work that he certainly considers central, namely Chopin's Ballade op. 52 - it is one of the centerpieces of his musical thinking - almost all the works on this evening are rarities: Couperin (with the sensuous "Rondeau Les Barricades mistérieuses" and Rameau's sparklingly played "Gavotte", the Busoni group - not to mention the fact that he offers a new work by the Finnish composer Saariaho: 'Prélude' and, answered in the program sequence by Chopin's Ballade, also a 'Ballade'.

Directed by Jan Schmidt-Garre

A production of Pars Media & EuroArts Music International
in co-production with SVT

© 2007, Pars Media & EuroArts Music International