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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Julsånger utan ord
Christmas Music - Released by Naxos on 24 Oct 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Villa-Lobos: Mats Bergström & Friends
Mats Bergstrom, Heitor Villa-Lobos
Classical - Released by Proprius on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Guitar - English Music from the 16th, 17th and 20th Centuries
Classical - Released by Universal Music AB on 1 Oct 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sei Solo
Mats Bergstrom, Johann Sebastian Bach
Classical - Released by Mats Bergstrom Musik on 27 Oct 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Adelita
Mats Bergstrom, Francisco Tárrega
Classical - Released by Carpe Diem (Sweden) on 1 Dec 2021
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Till rosorna
Mats Rondin, Staffan Scheja, Mats Bergstrom
Chamber Music - Released by Naxos Sweden - Daphne on 24 Jan 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Fler sånger utan ord
Mats Bergstrom, Georg Riedel, Jonas Holgersson, Göran Söllscher, Andreas Hellkvist
Folk - Released by Naxos on 18 Sep 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Guitar Chamber Music (Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Federico Garcia Lorca)
Classical - Released by Proprius on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Carl
Olle Adolphson, Mats Bergstrom
Classical - Released by Carpe Diem (Sweden) on 4 May 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Så skimrande var aldrig havet
Jeanette Kohn, Mats Bergstrom, Jonas Knutsson
Classical - Released by Naxos Sweden - LB on 25 Jun 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Serenad till Gryningen
Classical - Released by Naxos Sweden - Mats Bergström Musik AB on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Till rosorna
Mats Rondin, Staffan Scheja, Mats Bergstrom, Serge Rachmaninoff, Wilhelm Peterson-berger, Gabriel Fauré
Chamber Music - Released by Daphne Records on 24 Jan 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Så skimrande var aldrig havet
Jeanette Kohn, Mats Bergstrom, Jonas Knutsson, Evert Taube
Classical - Released by Ladybird Production on 25 Jun 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Vaggvisor i oredans tid
Jeanette Kohn, Mats Bergstrom, Jonas Knutsson
Humour/Spoken Word - Released by Ladybird Production on 12 Nov 2021
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Con sentimento
Classical - Released by Carpe Diem (Sweden) on 20 Apr 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Day in November
Pop - Released by Carpe Diem (Sweden) on 29 Dec 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bagatelle
Classical - Released by Carpe Diem (Sweden) on 16 Sep 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Après un rêve
Annika Skoglund, Mats Bergstrom
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Proprius on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
El Gato
Classical - Released by Carpe Diem (Sweden) on 23 Sep 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Nobel In Memoriam
Classical - Released by Carpe Diem (Sweden) on 29 Mar 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo