Mats Bergstrom
Mats Bergström has taken guitar performance into so many directions and with such skill, it's a challenge to simply define his career. He is a highly successful soloist, chamber player, accompanist, and arranger, and in most of these roles he has struck out rather imaginative paths. In the chamber realm he has played in duos, trios, and larger ensembles, and in such unusual combinations as vocalist, double bass, and guitar. He has done much accompaniment, particularly with vocal soloists like mezzo-soprano Malena Ernman and soprano Annika Skoglund. As an arranger he has, through Mats Bergström Performance Editions, fashioned numerous renditions for guitar and other instruments of works by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Bizet, Grieg, Nielsen, and many others. Naturally, his repertory is inclusive of music by these, as well as by contemporary composers like Reich, Takemitsu, Åke Parmerud, and Anders Hillborg. And Bergström has also performed crossover fare by Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Michel Legrand, and others. Bergström has recorded for such labels as BIS, Naxos, and Wergo.
Mats Bergström was born in Gävle, Sweden, in 1961. Raised in Stockhom, he studied music at the Royal College of Music there, graduating in 1982. He debuted at London's Wigmore Hall in 1983 and while he experienced reasonable success afterward, even appearing on several recordings in the mid-'80s, he decided on further study. From 1990-1992 Bergström had post-graduate studies at Juilliard. Thereafter he occasionally appeared as soloist in concert, but largely focused on chamber music performance and song accompaniment.
His 1995 Areco Music CD, With a Little Help, was a crossover effort (works by Ravel, de Falla, Chick Corea, Gershwin, etc.) that was quite in the spirit of chamber collaboration, as it featured Christian Bergqvist (violin), Sam Bengtsson (electric bass guitar), Anna Norberg (flute), and many others on various tracks. By the turn of the new century Bergström was a major international presence, with many successful recordings and a busy concert schedule. His concert appearances with mezzo Malena Ernman resulted in their first CD, My Love, issued in 2004 on the BIS label.
In 2006 Bergström was made a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He remained busy making numerous arrangements of instrumental and vocal pieces from the classical repertory. Bergström recorded a disc of his arrangements of Schubert sonatas for the Proprius label in 2010 that featured Nils-Erik Sparf, on violin and viola, and other artists.
© TiVo
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Vocalise
Mats Rondin, Staffan Scheja, Mats Bergstrom, Jan-Eric Gustafsson
Chamber Music - Released by Daphne Records on 1 Oct 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Villa-Lobos: Mats Bergström & Friends
Classical - Released by Naxos Sweden - Proprius Records on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Nordic Spring
Christian Bergqvist, Mats Bergstrom, Per Flemstrom
Chamber Music - Released by Swedish Society on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vaggvisor i oredans tid
Jeanette Kohn, Mats Bergstrom, Jonas Knutsson
Children - Released by Naxos Sweden - LB on 12 Nov 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Music for Trio
Mats Bergstrom, Svante Henryson, Magnus Persson
Jazz - Released by Mats Bergstrom Musik on 12 Jun 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Perceptions of Time
Mats Bergstrom, Anders Jormin, Joakim Svenheden
Chamber Music - Released by Caprice on 7 Nov 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bagatelle
Classical - Released by Naxos Sweden - Carpe Diem on 16 Sep 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Die Schöne Müllerin
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Caprice on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classical Guitar for Romance
Norbert Kraft, Mats Bergstrom, Gérald Garcia, Marc Teicholz, Enno Voorhorst
Classical - Released by Naxos Special Projects on 30 Aug 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Con sentimento
Classical - Released by Naxos Sweden - Carpe Diem on 20 Apr 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Nobel In Memoriam
Classical - Released by Naxos Sweden - Carpe Diem on 29 Mar 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Reich: Electric Counterpoint / Takemitsu: All in Twilight
Classical - Released by BIS on 28 Apr 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
In SEA (Inspired by ‘The Outlaw Ocean’ a book by Ian Urbina)
New Age - Released by The Outlaw Ocean LLC on 12 Feb 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ängslans gröna jord - ur Fridas Bok
Mikael Samuelson, Mats Bergstrom
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Musica Sveciae on 1 Mar 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Day in November
Pop - Released by Naxos Sweden - Carpe Diem on 29 Dec 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
El Gato
Classical - Released by Naxos Sweden - Carpe Diem on 23 Sep 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Après un rêve
Annika Skoglund, Mats Bergstrom
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Naxos Sweden - Proprius Records on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Olle Adolphson Musik för gitarr
Mats Bergstrom, Olle Adolphson, Claude Valéry, Heinrich Isaac, Traditional
Classical - Released by Mats Bergstrom Musik on 1 Jun 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Moon's a Harsh Mistress
Classical - Released by Carpe Diem (Sweden) on 9 Nov 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo