Pintscher, Matthias
- Michael Töpel
Extract
(b Marl, Jan 29, 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 ...
