Bengt Forsberg

Pianist Bengt Forsberg is perhaps best known for his work as an accompanist to mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter. He also performs chamber music and solo piano music, and in the latter area, he is recognized for unearthing and performing neglected repertory. Forsberg was born on July 26, 1952, in Edleskog, Sweden. He attended the Royal Academy of Music in Gothenburg, intending to become a church organist, but switched to piano and graduated in that field in 1978. He moved abroad for further study, working with Herman D. Koppel in Copenhagen and Peter Feuchtwanger in London. Forsberg is perhaps best known for his performances and recordings as an accompanist, where he plays a background, although certainly critical, role. His recording debut came in 1988, backing Ilona Maros on the album Swedish Contemporary Vocal Music. Foremost among his collaborations has been that with von Otter; their recording association began in 1989 with an album of songs by Jan Sibelius and has continued prolifically under the aegis of the BIS label, touching not only on Scandinavian repertory but on such novelties as songs by Cécile Chaminade. Among their most acclaimed recordings was a recital of songs composed in the Terezin concentration camp during World War II. Forsberg made his name as a soloist, sometimes in music that was both difficult and unfamiliar: he performed Nikolai Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 50, with the Stockholm Philharmonic in 1999, and his solo repertory includes works of such composers as Charles Alkan and Kaikhosru Sorabji as well as standard French works. Forsberg has recorded several works by Saint-Saëns for the Hyperion label, and he has also issued recordings of music by Charles Koechlin, Léon Boëllmann, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, among others. In 2018, von Otter and Forsberg released the multinational recital A Simple Song on BIS. Forsberg has also joined instrumentalists in duets and trios, recording music by the little-known composer Amanda Maier with violinist Cecilia Zilliacus and viola-and-piano music by York Bowen with violist James Boyd. In 2020, Forsberg backed cellist Andreas Brantelid on the Naxos album Russian Tales: Myaskovsky, Glazunov. After a pandemic pause, he returned in 2024 as part of a chamber group on BIS, on an album of works by composer Marcelle de Manziarly. By that time, Forsberg’s recording catalog comprised some 50 items. ~ James Manheim