Bernhard Ruchti

Bernhard Ruchti (born July 1, 1974, Berkeley) is a Swiss pianist, organist, composer and music researcher.
==Life==
Ruchti studied piano with Eckart Heiligers and organ with Rudolf Scheidegger, Stefan Johannes Bleicher, and Bernhard Haas. Since 2013, he has been organist at the ev.-ref. Stadtkirche St. Laurenzen in St. Gallen. As a pianist, he maintains an extensive YouTube channel.
Already during his time as a student he became interested in the performance practice and playing technique of the 19th century. Inspired by his studies with Bernhard Haas, he published an essay "Thoughts on the stimulation of organ playing by a pianistic playing technique" in 2006. The essay was the beginning of a lifelong interpretive and musicological exploration of the subject. 
In 2010 and 2011, Ruchti spent a sabbatical in the United States and lived in San Francisco for 10 months. He began composing music and wrote a number of piano pieces, including "Five Songs of The Wind." These were released on his album "Liszt & The Black Hills" in 2012. He released another album of his own works ("Echoes from Chrysospilia") in 2017. In 2018, the world premiere of his choral cantata "Auf die Tiefe: ein irdisch Fahrtenlied" on a text by Bernd Gonner took place.
As of 2017, Ruchti is increasingly appearing as a pianist. In 2018, he began his "A Tempo Project".
In 2017 he was awarded by the city of St. Gallen with the Förderpreis Kultur.
==The A Tempo Project==
Since 2018, Ruchti has been conducting his "A Tempo Project," an interpretation, research, and recording project that explores tempo and time in 19th-century music. The focus is on Franz Liszt's performance practice.
He explores the academically controversial "double beat theory" by Willem Retze Talsma, which postulates an alternative use of the metronome and subsequently a much slower interpretation of classical music. He collaborated with Johann Sonnleitner on the matter and published an interview with him. Ruchti sees a historical justification for the idea of “double-beat” but takes a critical distance to the double-beat-theory itself. He uses it for the reinterpretation of classical works such as Chopin's Études or Schumann’s Fantasy in C-major.
In 2021 Ruchti published a book on the performance practice of Franz Liszt's Fantasy and Fugue on Ad nos, ad salutarem undam for organ. On the one hand, the book presents the exciting history surrounding the composition, premiere, and reception of the work in great detail. On the other hand, it provides insight into performance practice lore by and about Franz Liszt. The focus is on the aspect of tempo. The starting point is the duration of the work of 45 minutes, which was documented in the 19th century by four independent sources. This duration differs from modern interpretations by more than 15 minutes. Together with the book, Ruchti presented a recording of the work on the historic Ladegast organ at Merseburg Cathedral.
Starting with Volume V of the A Tempo Project, Ruchti doesn’t explore the “double-beat-theory” anymore but turns more and more to the musical aspects of tempo as well as to the direct testimonies to the performance practice of Franz Liszt. In 2022 he published another realization of a historically documented duration of a musical work with his recording of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata.
Ruchti's "A Tempo Project" is acknowledged in various specialist articles.
==The music at the City Church of St. Laurenzen and the development of the Surround Organ==
Since 2014, Ruchti has been the head of the musical activities at St. Laurenzen church. He has been organizing the traditional “Laurenzen Concerts” as well as creating "Laurenzen Vespers". The “Laurenzen Vespers” consist of half an hour of music and poetry at monthly intervals. The innovative series has been a regular part of the church's music program since.
Starting in 2016, Ruchti developed the idea of a surround organ for the Stadtkirche St. Laurenzen in St. Gallen. The existing organ in the church by Orgelbau Kuhn (III/Ped, 45 stops) is supplemented by three new pipe locations corresponding to the three main timbres of an organ (principals, flutes, strings). These new pipe divisions are located on the three galleries of the church, creating a unique surround effect. This tonal design is new in form and represents an innovation in organ building.
==Discography==
* 2012: Liszt & The Black Hills
* 2017: Echoes from Chrysospilia
* 2019: Beethoven A Tempo I (Piano Sonatas Op. 2 No. 1 and Op. 110)
* 2019: Liszt A Tempo I (Fantasy and Fugue on Ad nos, ad salutarem undam)
* 2020: Schumann A Tempo (Fantasy in C major Op. 17)
* 2021: Chopin A Tempo (Études Op. 10)
* 2021: Liszt A Tempo II (Années de Pèlerinage, Italie)
* 2022: Beethoven A Tempo II ("Hammerklavier Sonata" Op. 106)
==Sources==
* Official Website: https://www.bernhardruchti.com
* YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@bernhardruchti
* Interview (in German with English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pzC6-MMGUQ 
Category:1974 births
Category:People from Berkeley, California
Category:Swiss pianists
Category:Organists
Category:Composers
Category:Musicology