The first works of Roland Pöntinen, not counting numerous compositional attempts of his childhood, were composed for his own jazz group, formed in 1981.
The music was a mix of be-bop, fusion and Pöntinen’s own melodious style and scored for the flexible number of players in the band: piano, bass, drums, strings, saxophones, sometimes with an added flute or bassoon.
One of these pieces, Camera, a continuous melody of eighty bars, never repeating any section, was later transformed into a work for trombone and piano, dedicated to Christian Lindberg. The extensive collaboration with Lindberg soon resulted in a bigger piece for trombone and strings, Blue Winter, which was written especially for Christian Lindberg’s CD The Winter Trombone but never performed live. Blue Winter was premiered more than ten years later in Philadelphia and in Carnegie Hall, New York, by trombonist Nitzan Haroz and The Philadelphia Orchestra under Wolfgang Sawallisch.
Pöntinen writes music as often as his busy touring schedule as a concert pianist permits and even then only for his own pleasure or if a good friend like Martin Fröst or Håkan Hardenberger would ask him to.
His undiminished interest in jazz and pop music has inspired him to write many arrangements of music by Kate Bush, Radiohead, David Bowie and others.
Danse Serpentine was composed for Martin Fröst, who gave the first performance together with the composer in Wigmore Hall in April 2010.
A later version of this piece for two pianos, celesta, vibraphone, marimba and violin was premiered in Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome, in November 2010.
Poème carmine
Poème carmine for solo flute is written for Italian super virtuoso Mario Caroli who gave the first performance in Stockholm 2 October 2004.
"Hommage à Ligeti " for piano, electric guitar and double bass (2006) was premiered by Ola Karlsson, Svante Henryson and the composer in the Cathedral of S:ta Maria, Visby on 31 July, 2006.
The piece is composed in memory of György Ligeti –one of the greatest composers of all times, who died on 12 June, 2006.
Download the composition Poéme carmine (pdf).
Selected Works
The Girl from Brazil (1981)
Camera per trombone e pianoforte (1981) also version for jazz-group
Blue Winter for trombone and strings (1987)
Tango Plus for clarinet,violin,cello and piano (1993)
Capriccio for two flutes and strings (1993)
Mercury Dream for clarinet and piano (1994)
Concerto for piano and winds (1994)
Aiming at the ocean (1997)
Sombre seascapes glowing (1997)
+ arrangements and transcriptions of music by J.SBach,Vivaldi,Mahler,Coltrane,David Bowie and Kate Bush
In February 1998 Roland Pöntinen walked the stage of Carnegie Hall for the first time–not in his usual role as pianist but as composer.The haunting , bittersweet Blue Winter for trombone and strings had had its New-York-Premiere (the world-premiere took place in Philadelphia some weeks earlier ). The soloist was the brillant trombonist Nitzan Haroz and the strings of the Philadelphia Orchestra was conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch.
Blue Winter was composed in 1987 for Christian Lindberg who had asked Pöntinen to contribute with a piece to record on the album ”The Winter Trombone”.
Since practically all the trombone-players in the world followed every artistic move of Lindberg, it did not take long before musicians began to ask for the piece.It was however not published until ten years later ,when Pöntinen made a revision of the work.
After the New-York premiere, Bernard Holland wrote in The New York Times:
« Mr.Pöntinen takes an unlikely solo instrument deadly seriously as an agent for rich,flexible lyrical writing.”Blue Winter” is a kind of elegy in one movement.The trombone part , played here with skill and sincerity by Nitzan Haroz, is made to sing against slow-moving chordal sheets of string sound.
The effect is both icy and mournful; the acid harmonies keep sentimentality at bay .»
> More reviews on Blue Winter
The collaboration with Lindberg began in the early eighties and within a few years the duo had made five highly acclaimed CD:s that covered the most important works for trombone and piano such as the Hindemith sonata and the Ballade by Frank Martin but also featured arrangements, transcriptions and new works composed directly for Lindberg. Pöntinen dedicated his Camera (originally composed for Pöntinen’s jazzgroup )to Christian Lindberg and the two musicians recorded it on ”The Burlesque Trombone”-album. The initial idea for Camera was to write a long melody without repeating any section. On the recording the impression of an endless line is reinforced by a concluding improvisation with a ”fade out”.Another important element of the piece is the stumbling rythm(7/8 and 9/8 with rubato).
Mercury Dream was composed with the brillant clarinetist Martin Fröst in mind. Even more so than Camera it is written in the jazz idiom. You can hear this piece on Fröst’s debut recording ”French Beauties and Swedish Beasts”(BIS-CD 693).
Blue Winter,Camera and Mercury Dream are all published by Warner/Chappell and can be ordered from order@gehrmans.se
The Concerto for piano and winds was commisioned by the Östgöta Wind Symphony and was composed during the spring and summer of 1994. It was given its first performance in Motala on the 27th of August 1994.
Tango plus for clarinet,violin,cello and piano was commisioned by The Gotland Chamber Festival
and first performed in Visby in August 1993 with the composer at the piano,clarinetist Martin Fröst,violonist Jan Söderblom and the cellist Torleif Thedéen.The first movement is indeed inspired by argentinian tango.”Plus”are the three following movements: a ”nightmusic”-piece,a dense scherzo and ,finally, an evocative epilogue.
Pöntinen has recently made arrangements of music by Vivaldi,Coltrane,Coleman,David Bowie and Kate Bush.They were specially written for Joakim Milder-one of Sweden’s foremost saxophone-players,the versatile cellist Svante Henryson and the much praised The Real Group.
Works by Roland Pöntinen on CD
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Camera per trombone e pianoforte (1981) Christian Lindberg ,trombone & Roland Pöntinen,piano
”The Burlesque Trombone” BIS CD-318 (1985)
Blue Winter (1987) Christian Lindberg ,trombone, New Stockholm Chamber Orchestra
”The Winter Trombone”, BIS CD-348 (1987)
Mercury Dream (1993) Martin Fröst ,clarinet & Roland Pöntinen, piano
”French Beauties and Swedish Beasts” BIS CD-693 (1993)
Concerto for piano and winds (1994) Roland Pöntinen , piano Östgöta Wind Symphony,Sonny Jansson , conductor
”Swedish Music for Winds”, Twin Music (T M C D 23) (1994)
Listen to some recordings
More reviews
 Roland Pöntinen in front of Carnegie Hall before attending the New York premiere of Blue Winter. February 3, 1998 |
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