Le Sacre du Printemps / L'Oiseau de Feu, Suite (1919) / Three Movements from Petrouchka (arr piano)

Leonard Bernstein asked him to transcribe his ballet, Fancy Free, which Mr. Achatz then recorded along with his own transcription of Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.

Born in Stockholm in 1942 of a Swedish mother and a Viennese father, both musicians, he was raised in Switzerland, where he entered the Geneva Conservatory at age 8. Graduating with honors, he continued his studies with Greta Eriksson in Stockholm, with Guido Agosti in Siena, and with Suzanne Roche, Alfred Cortot and Vlado Perlemuter in Siena. In 1960 he claimed victory in the Rudolf Ganz Competition in Lausanne, and in 1964 took first prize at the coveted Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona. He was also a prizewinner at the Bavarian Radio Competition in Munich and the Viotti Competition in Vercelli. He has since performed in more than 25 countries and in every major musical center, including London, Paris, New York, Boston, Berlin, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Tokyo and Beijing.

Dag Achatz with Bernstein
Mr. Achatz has been a soloist with the radio orchestras of Stockholm, Munich, Paris, Stuttgart, Torino, Milan, and with the Orchestre de Pasdeloup of Paris, l'Orchestre de l'Opera de Monte-Carlo, the Gewandhaus of Leipzig, the Staatskapelle of Dresden, and with the philharmonic orchestras of Stockholm, Oslo, Barcelona and Lisbon. He has participated in the international music festivals of Montreux, Aix-en-Provence and Savonlina in Finland. He has also collaborated with many eminent conductors including Celibidache, Bernstein, Kertesz, Zinmann, Kamu and others. His master classes have taken him to the Academie-Festival des Arcs in France, the Institute of Advanced Musical Studies in Montreux, the Osaka Conservatory in Japan, and the Umea International Academy in Sweden. Dag Achatz serves frequently on the juries of international competitions, including those at Jaen, the Clara Haskil, Vercelli, Paris, Oporto, Munich (Bavarian Radio Orchestra Competition), and many others. In chamber music and lieder, he has performed with the Da Ponte Quartet; with singers Barbara Hendricks, Birgit Finila, Hugues Cuenod and Joanna Porackova, and in four-hand music with Yukie Nagai. He has made more than two dozen recordings for BIS, CBS, EMI, Melodiya and Americus Records. His best-selling CD of the music of Gershwin, on the BIS label, has been widely praised, as are his recordings of Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, Schumann, Liszt, Ravel, Stenhammer, Grieg and many others.

Roland Pöntinen made his début in 1981 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and has since then performed with major orchestras in Europe, the United States, Korea, South America, Australia and New Zealand. He has collaborated with such eminent conductors as Myung-Whun Chung, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Leif Segerstam, Evgeny Svetlanov, Franz Welser-Möst and David Zinman. Highlights of his career have included appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra in Paris and London, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Glasgow and Edinburgh as well as performances at the BBC Proms where he has played both the Grieg and the Ligeti piano concertos.

With his insatiable musical appetite and stupendous technique, Pöntinen has acquired a vast repertoire, ranging from Bach to Ligeti. The emphasis is on the 'golden era' of piano literature: from the 19th century - in particular Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt - up to the first half of the 20th century with composers such as Debussy, Busoni, Szymanowski and Rachmaninov. Roland Pöntinen is also a passionate chamber musician but, although he has played in innumerable chamber music combinations, he only performs regularly with a few musicians such as the violinist Ulf Wallin, the soprano Barbara Hendricks and his piano duo partner Love Derwinger. He has participated in numerous festivals including the Berliner Festwochen, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, La Roque d'Anthéron Piano Festival and Edinburgh Festival.

Roland Pöntinen is also active as a composer and in 1998 his work Blue Winter had its world première in Philadelphia and New York (Carnegie Hall) with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Wolfgang Sawallisch. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and in 2001 received 'Litteris et Artibus' - a royal medal in recognition of eminent skills in the artistic field.