Bengt Forsberg

Pianist Bengt Forsberg built much of his reputation through long-standing partnerships with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, yet he has also maintained active careers in chamber ensembles and as a solo recitalist who champions overlooked scores. Born on July 26, 1952, in Edleskog, Sweden, he first enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music in Gothenburg with the goal of becoming a church organist before shifting his focus to piano and completing his studies in 1978. Advanced training took him to Copenhagen for lessons with Herman D. Koppel and to London for work with Peter Feuchtwanger.

Although his supporting role often places him in the background, Forsberg’s recordings as a collaborative pianist have drawn consistent attention since his debut in 1988, when he accompanied Ilona Maros on Swedish Contemporary Vocal Music. His most prominent alliance remains the one with von Otter; their partnership began in 1989 with a BIS disc of songs by Jan Sibelius and has since encompassed Scandinavian repertoire alongside less familiar fare such as works by Cécile Chaminade. One of their most celebrated projects assembled songs written inside the Terezin concentration camp during World War II.

As a soloist Forsberg has tackled technically demanding and seldom-heard works, including Nikolai Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 50, which he performed with the Stockholm Philharmonic in 1999. His programs regularly feature Charles Alkan, Kaikhosru Sorabji, and standard French literature. For Hyperion he has recorded several Saint-Saëns pieces, while other releases survey music by Charles Koechlin, Léon Boëllmann, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

In 2018 von Otter and Forsberg issued the multinational program A Simple Song on BIS. He has also partnered with instrumentalists, joining violinist Cecilia Zilliacus for works by the little-known Amanda Maier and violist James Boyd for York Bowen’s viola-and-piano music. In 2020 he accompanied cellist Andreas Brantelid on the Naxos release Russian Tales: Myaskovsky, Glazunov. Following a pandemic-related hiatus, Forsberg reappeared in 2024 on a BIS chamber recording devoted to Marcelle de Manziarly, bringing his discography to roughly fifty titles.