Throughout the 1980s, Røttingen worked closely with the Norwegian composer Harald Sæverud and has recorded all the solo piano music in addition to the Piano Concerto with Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (SIMAX). He has also collaborated with many living composers and has commissioned numerous works.

His recordings include the solo-CD Avgarde (HERMERA) with works by Knut Vaage, Torstein Aagaard-Nilsen, Glenn Haugland, Jostein Stalheim and Ketil Hvoslef and others, Hika (SIMAX) - with the violinist Trond Sæverud in works by Crumb, Takemitsu, Messiaen, Debussy and Grieg - and George Crumb’s Makrokosmos (CLASSICO). Hika was chosen as ‘Selection of the month’ in The Strad in 2002.

In 2005 Einar Røttingen was soloist with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in the first performance of Knut Vaage’s Piano Concerto The Gardens of Hokkaido which was released as a CD in 2010 (AURORA). The solo-CD Norwegian Variations (SIMAX), which includes Grieg’s Ballade op.24 and sonatas by Fartein Valen and Geirr Tveitt, was chosen as ‘Special Selection’ in International Piano in 2006 and awarded ‘Record of the Year’ by The International Grieg Society of Great Britain. This CD is also included in his PhD dissertation from 2006: Establishing a Norwegian Piano Tradition: Interpretive Aspects of Edvard Grieg’s Ballade op.24, Fartein Valen’s Sonata no.2 op.38 and Geirr Tveitt’s Sonata no.29 op.129.

In 2007 Røttingen performed the complete 172 songs of Edvard Grieg with the bass-baryton Njål Sparbo in a series of seven concerts as part of the Grieg September Festival in Bergen. He is member of the Valen Trio which in 2012 released a critically acclaimed CD (LAWO) with trios by Ketil Hvoslef, Fartein Valen and Klaus Egge. Einar Røttingen is currently involved in recording Ketil Hvoslef’s complete chamber music on 9 CDs (LAWO).

Einar Røttingen has been awarded the City of Bergen Cultural Prize and The Bergen International Festival’s Robert Levin Festival Prize.