boris bergmann

composing • piano

The Richter Scale

Last year, Heresy Records released “The Richter Scale”, a new piano composition by Boris Bergmann. The one-hour work was created for Steinway’s Spirio | r, respected as the world’s best high-resolution player piano and receives a stupendous performance on this premiere CD by the young Chinese Steinway Artist Ji Liu .
“The Richter Scale” is a programmatic composition in 11 movements, inspired by Charles F. Richter’s scale for measuring the magnitude of earthquakes. Several movements are written for four hands. Rather than using two pianists, Bergmann expertly employs the Steinway Spirio | r replacing the second pianist. Its technical possibilities allow a literally superhuman dynamic increase – following the exponential growth of the earthquake scale.
“The Richter Scale” engages with the theme of subterranean seismic eruption as a broader reflection of cultural and emotional states of trauma, upheaval and dissolution.
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Skrjabin, mein Spiel (Scriabin, my play) – a homage

On the 150th birthday of Alexander Scriabin (1872 – 1915)

Film, Germany 2022, length: 20 min (subtitles: English)
Music: Alexander Scriabin / Piano: Boris Bergmann / Director: Silvina Buchbauer

For the legendary composer Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915), music and philosophical-aesthetic considerations formed an inseparable unity. He worked on his thoughts and ideas as well as on the sounds, and both found equal entry into his work. The synaesthete regarded life and creation as a kind of cosmic game and dreamed of an art that included all sensory experiences. In SKRJABIN, MEIN SPIEL, together with filmmaker Silvina Buchbauer, I embark on a search for a form of expression that fuses music, thought and visual language into a unity in the Scriabinian sense.

Sponsored by: German Music Council and the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of Neustart Kultur. 

My Years In India – 2 Track Album

The wanderlust had become homesickness.
I could not even describe my longing for India to my best friends when I returned to Europe from my first encounter with this subcontinent in 1994. Five years later, as I sat on the plane after my second stay in India, I sketched out melodic and rhythmic thoughts for “My Years In India”.
I had already written the main melody of the composition during a bus ride through the Rajasthan desert.
Parts of my soul seemed to have stayed in India forever. “My Years In India” brought them back to me and was thus able to express that magic that the culturally infinitely rich country had cast on me.
It was not until November 2020 that the work was truly mature. I concentrated for several days in complete seclusion on my memories of the vastness and grandeur of India and recorded the two tracks for this album.

 

Digi Download „My Years In India“:
Bandcamp

SLOW – Scardanelli Lieder Ohne Worte (Scardanelli Songs Without Words)

For many years I had been captivated by these late Hölderlin poems, their enigmatic limbo between meaning, significance, and pure word melody.
Are the tower poems graspable by the mind? Fascinated by their unique sound, I desperately wanted to set a selection of these latest Hölderlin poems to music, but kept putting the texts aside. The idea took its time … Finally, in the summer of 2019, after more than ten years of working with the Scardanelli poems, the knot burst: Now everything suddenly happened very quickly and as if by itself. In a few weeks of feverish work, almost like a dream, SLOW was composed, recorded and mixed. 13 poems – 13 piano pieces. Finally!

 

Digi Download „SLOW – Scardanelli Lieder Ohne Worte“:
Bandcamp

Soloalbum
Hölder / Scriabin Night Sessions

A limited edition!

> Interview on »hölder«
> Interview on »scriabin night sessions«

Digi Download „Scriabin Night Sessions“:
Bandcamp
iTunes / Apple Music
Amazon
Spotify

Boris on YouTube

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News & Press

Live Concerts With Scenic Reading

SLOW Scardanelli Lieder Ohne Worte - a Hölderlin Evening (Reading in German) 5.9.2020 Schlosskirche Bad Homburg 25.9.2020 Tartu Saksa Kultuuri Instituut, Tartu, Estonia +++ cancelled due to Covid-19 +++ 20.11.2020 Centre Franco-Allemand de Provence, Aix en Provence,...

“Wem sonst als Dir” (Who Else but You) – a Hölderlin movie

After our Hölderlin evening in March, planned as a live concert with reading, was postponed for the well-known reasons, the Franco-German cultural institutes (Fédération des Maisons Franco-Allemandes) commissioned the actress and director Silvina Buchbauer and me to...

Facts and Arts

“A classical-trained German pianist working in a range of musical disciplines has just launched his most audacious experiment yet – an original piano sonata consisting almost entirely of creations from his unconscious mind. Boris Bergmann’s 'Hölder/Scriabin Night...

Clavier Companion

"I came for Scriabin and stayed for Hölder. The first disc of a two-disc set features Bergmann's compositions from 1998–2015, which are subtly performed. (...) The works unfold gracefully, with an improvisatory quality. They vary in style, too: for example, Piano...

nmz neue musikzeitung

“The pianist Boris Bergmann approaches the Préludes of Alexander Scriabin in a completely different manner than one would expect. He uses the historic Schwechten piano built in 1910 to remove the patina from the body of sound of the commonly held Scriabin perception...

PIANO News

"In many ways, Bergmann's piano music also reminds the listener of Conlon Nancarrow and his 'Player Piano Studies'. Dissimilar things appear to be combined spontaneously and explosively, smoothly or falteringly. Yet in all of this, the artist-cum-composer retains...

Frankfurter Neue Presse

"And although Bergmann is a devotee of classical music, he never regarded it as a contradiction to play in bands as a drummer. On long walks in the Taunus hills, he preferred classical music but his feeling for music is very broadly based." - Tatjana Seibt Link to the...

Schwäbisches Tagblatt

This article looks at the third Piano Sonata "Hölderlin". Author Achim Stricker describes the Hölderlin sonata as "music that makes the listener feel as though he is sensing or feeling one's way while sleep-walking. It is labyrinthine, continuously taking new turns."...

Photo by Mirjam Knickriem

Biography

Boris Bergmann needed at least 5 years to forget everything he had learned during his studies in Frankfurt and Darmstadt. He started composing film music and joined an electro blues trio as a pianist.
On extensive concert tours through Europe, he learned that Italian sports clubs like to produce their own wine. Spanish sound engineers spare no effort in miking a grand piano and Monaco is a risky place to hold open-air festivals.
In 2023, he released the piano composition “The Richter Scale”, for Steinway Spirio/r Player Piano and the Chinese pianist Ji Liu, to whom the work is dedicated. 
Most recently, he wrote a song cycle based on poems by the German lyricist Otto Braun (1897-1918) for the Irish singer Caitriona O’Leary.
Boris Bergmann lives and works in Berlin.

 

Photo by Mirjam Knickriem

 

List of Compositions

A Selection

THE FIVE PHASES OF DYING
after Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
Violoncello, piano and speaking voice (2022)


MY YEARS IN INDIA
Piano (2021)


GASTEINER WALZER (concert version)
Piano (2020)


SLOW – SCARDANELLI LIEDER OHNE WORTE
After poems by Friedrich Hölderlin
Piano (2019)


THE RICHTER SCALE
Self-playing piano plus one pianist (2018/19)


EIGHT WALTZES
Piano (2010 – 2020)


MARION SAMUEL SUITE
Orchestra (2016)


ROTE SCHUHE (Incidental music)
E-piano, organ, drums and electronic music (2014)


TRAIN VOX
Piano, voice and electronic music (2013)


TWO POEMS
Piano (2012)


SONATA NO. 3 „HÖLDERLIN“
Piano (2011)


ES GIBT KEINE GESPENSTER (Incidental music)
Ensembles and electronic music (2009)
Co-composer: J. Drescher


SONATA NO. 2
Piano (2008)


LOVE SONG
Piano (2004)


LOVE SONG
His own arrangements for orchestras (2004)


VIER ELEKTRONISCHE STUDIEN
Octophonic playback tape (2003)


BARDO
Ensembles (2002)


NETZE
Soprano and flute (2001)


LA DANSE DE PUCK
Claude Debussy
His own arrangements for orchestras (2001)


NACHTSTÜCK UND IMPROVISATION ÜBER BACH
Prepared piano (2001)


PROLOG
Chamber choir and trombone (2000)


EINE FABEL
Violoncello (2000)


JÜNGER UND MEISTER
Piano four hands (2000)


DREI STUDIEN FÜR SCHLAGZEUG
Drums (1999)


ZWEI LIEDER
Mid-range singing voice and piano (1998)


SONATA NO. 1
Piano (1998)

 

Discography

THE RICHTER SCALE REMIXES
Khan of Finland/Ji Liu/Boris Bergmann
EP/DL (2023)
HERESY031


THE RICHTER SCALE
Boris Bergmann/Ji Liu
Album/CD (2023)
HERESY030


THE RICHTER SCALE PREMIXES
Khan of Finland/Ji Liu/Boris Bergmann
EP/DL (2023)
HERESY029


MY YEARS IN INDIA
Boris Bergmann
2 Track Album/DL (2021)
BANDCAMP


SLOW – SCARDANELLI LIEDER OHNE WORTE
Boris Bergmann
Album/DL (2019)
BANDCAMP


HÖLDER / SCRIABIN NIGHT SESSIONS
Boris Bergmann
Double album/2 CD (2017)
SAMM0152


HÖLDER
Boris Bergmann
Album/DL (2017)
SAMM0154


NICHT NUR SEX
Khan Of Finland:
Album/CD/DL (2017)
Strike0162


SCRIABIN NIGHT SESSIONS
Boris Bergmann
Album/DL (2016)
SAMM0153


WILD STYLE LION
Wild Style Lion
Album/DL (2015)
IMS029


WILD STYLE LION FEAT. KIM GORDON
Wild Style Lion
12-inch/Vinyl (2015)
IMS028


THIN WHITE SINNER
Khan Of Finland
EP/DL (2013)
IMS024


WATERGATE – 05
Ellen Alien
CD/mixed (2010)
WG005


KHAN OF FINLAND
Khan Of Finland
Album/CD (2009)
IMS004


FINE MOUCHE REMIXES
Brigitte Fontaine & Khan
EP/DL (2009)
IMS007


ACHTUNG MUSIC! NEW BERLIN TALENT
Various
Compilation/CD (2008)
BMC0801


STRIP DOWN
Khan
7-inch/Vinyl (2007)
tom95s


THINGS I WISH I HAD NOT CALLED JUST THINGS
Cuba Missouri
Album/CD (2007)
MMD023


ROLLING HEINZ
Wilde 13
EP/Vinyl (1991)
cop003

Filmography

A selection

SKRJABIN, MEIN SPIEL
Music film (2022)
Direction: Silvina Buchbauer


WEM SONST ALS DIR
Literary film (2020)
Direction: Silvina Buchbauer


HOTEL AUSCHWITZ
Film (2018)
Song: “Scussel”, Direction: Cornelius Schwalm
“Achtung Berlin” Filmfestival 2018


FLIEGEN
Short film (2018)
Direction: Sören Senn


HOMELAND
Series (2016)
Song: „Woman in Church“, Episode: „A False Glimmer“
Direction: Lesli Linka Glatter


DER NACHTMAHR
Film (2015)
Song: “Grey Sedan”, Wild Style Lion feat. Kim Gordon
Direction: Akiz Ikon
Filmfestival Munich 2015, Berlinale 2016


UNTERM EIS
TV movie (2015), ARD
Direction: Jörg Grünler


AM ANFANG HELL, AM ENDE DUNKEL
Documentary (2014)
Direction: Andrea Simon and Fabio Stoll
Co-composers: Robin Schliep, Klaus Damm, Christof Kette

  • Winner of the Best Director Feature Film & Audience Award
    MICA Film Festival 2015, Brazil
  • Winner of the Best Film for Children – Germany
    The Kids Festival 2015, Spain

DER ACHTE SOMMER
Documentary (2012), WDR, 3sat
Direction: Andrea Schramm


 

ENTE, TOD UND TULPE
Dance film (2012)
Direction: Andrea Simon
Co-composer: Johannes Drescher


SCHLITTEN AUF SCHWARZEM SCHNEE
Film (2011)
Direction: Sylke Enders
Co-composer: Johannes Drescher


INSPEKTOR BARBAROTTI: MENSCH OHNE HUND
TV movie (2010), ARD
Direction: Jörg Grünler
Co-composers: Can “Khan“ Oral, Silvina Buchbauer


LAUTLOSE MORDE
TV movie (2009), ZDF, ORF
Direction: Jörg Grünler
Co-composer: Johannes Drescher


COMMANDER BOOMKOLD
Cartoon (2008)
Direction: Denis di Floriano
Co-composer: Johannes Drescher


IM SCHATTEN DER BLUTRACHE
Documentary (2007), SWR, WDR, arte
Direction: Jana Matthes and Andrea Schramm
Co-composer: Johannes Drescher

  • Winner of the 2007 German Television Prize (“Deutscher Fernsehpreis”)

JUREK’S KINO
Documentary (2006)
Direction: Eicke Bettinga
Co-composer: Johannes Drescher


KUSSKUSS
Film (2005)
Direction: Sören Senn

  • Winner of the Babelsberg Media Award 2005
  • Winner of the Film Festival San Jose 2006
  • Variety Critics Choice Karlovy Varo International Film Festival 2006