# Matthias Pintscher (b. 1971)



## ComposerOfAvantGarde

I'm very surprised that such a significant composer and conductor of today has not a composer guestbook.....until now!










Pintscher's music is widely performed by orchestras and ensembles these days and he's currently the musical director of Ensemble InterContemporain, but it isn't often his names gets mentioned on TC for some reason. Perhaps people here are more interested with the goings on at Donaueschinger Musiktage festivals than Ensemble InterContemporain, but who knows!

Here's what Grove Music says about Pintscher:

_(b Marl, 29 Jan 1971). German composer. While still at school, he acquired experience as an instrumentalist and as an occasional conductor of the youth orchestra in his native city. His first compositions, written as an adolescent, resulted from his fascination with the symphony orchestra. He began studying composition with Klebe in 1989 and continued his studies with Trojahn in Düsseldorf (1992-3); Henze also gave him support and encouragement. His early success is reflected in his many honours, which include composition prizes, stipends and commissions from famous opera houses, orchestras, conductors and soloists. He established his reputation as a conductor with the Berlin Staatsoper's première of his ballet Gesprungene Glocken in 1994.

Pintscher's music, with its attention to tone colour and its response to compositional impulse, relies on poetic force. Ideas from the visual arts (as in Figura I-II) and literature suggest associative structures and dimensions that he translates into music, transforming the intensity gradient of objects or metaphors into atmospheric densities of sound. He has described many of his poetry-inspired works (such as Monumento I-V, after Rimbaud) as 'speech-music'; these compositions seek a way through the colour of poetic language into the heart of the poetic scene, while acknowledging that such an ideal cannot be achieved. This sense of imaginary drama led him to compose his first opera, Thomas Chatterton (1994-7), on a subject who is, in the words of the composer, 'a creative figure destroyed by his own ordinary nature'._


----------



## arpeggio

^^^
Just checked our some of his works on You Tube. WOW!!! Thanks for the suggestion.


----------



## Albert7

arpeggio said:


> ^^^
> Just checked our some of his works on You Tube. WOW!!! Thanks for the suggestion.


Wow, he is truly the bomb. And I can't believe he didn't get in here until now. 

p.s. Why does he looks like an Apple Genius bar expert? LOL


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde

My favourite work by Pintscher.


----------



## mmsbls

Due to CoAG's earlier posts on Pintscher, I listened to several of his works. I haven't heard as much as I'd eventually like, but I would definitely recommend _Reflections on Narcissus_.

First part


----------



## Guest

Sonic Eclipse is probably my favorite too, but the Funf Orchesterstucke are certainly contenders. For a composer born only ~44 years ago, he has a surprising number of recordings under his belt. I've collected nearly every official recording I could find but I'm sure his career has only just begun! Can't wait until he gets an official opera recording under his belt, among other things. And I hope KAIROS continues to support him. There aren't many composers with 3+ recordings on that label, but the lucky few... Oh my...


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde

I found out recently that I missed his appearance with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra last month!!! He was conducting Beethoven symphony 7, a Saint-Saëns concerto and his _Idyll._ There are quite a number of videos on YouTube of him as a conductor! I do like his conducting very much, but it's his music which is what I like most of his work.


----------



## Guest

Received a little catalog today for the DSO 2016-2017 season. I glanced through it looking for the odd forward-thinking program, and was pleased to see that they'll be playing a Pintscher violin concerto. Probably the next most notable thing was the Lutoslawski Concerto For Orchestra.


----------



## Richannes Wrahms

Basically Boulez without 'it'. Great in conducting.


----------



## philoctetes

Bump. Urged by the recent Ferneyhough activity. Heard this piece live a few years ago, and it made a lasting impression. Could not find the YT by Sophie Cherrier that allegedly follows her Berio, so this will have to do...


----------

