After 9 recording projects and numerous releases, the time has come for the next step: Bernhard is going on tour with his A Tempo Project! Since 2018, Bernhard has been working on the A Tempo Project. He has done an immense amount of research. he has developed new interpretations and has perfected them on the piano. Starting in February 2025, four concert tours are planned until 2028: The first one in Switzerland and three more on an international level. It's a thrilling adventure that is about to start - but what would our lives be if we did not seek to realize our dreams?

The first tour in February/March 2025 offers 7 concerts in 7 Swiss cities. In 2026 it will be the USA and Canada, in 2027 Japan and finally Europe in 2028. All four tours will include a concert at the Tonhalle St. Gallen (Switzerland).

Ticket sales for the Swiss tour have already started. The main pieces of the concerts is one of the most important works when it comes to tempo in classical music: Ludwig van Beethoven's "Great Sonata for the Hammerklavier" in B flat major Opus 106. Bernhard's interpretation is inspired by a duration that the great virtuoso Franz Liszt indicated for the piece: "almost an hour". The Sonata will be accompanied by two compositions by Franz Liszt himself and the Suite in four movements by Bernhard Ruchti.

Further information and ticket sales

Download flyer

Crowdfunding: Join the A Tempo Tour!

Organizing and playing four international tours not only requires months of organization and meticulous planning. It also involves high costs. These costs will be covered by foundations as well as a public crowdfunding. A first foundation is already on board: the St. Gallen-based Ria & Arthur Dietschweiler Foundation.

Find out more following this link about the A Tempo Project, about Bernhard Ruchti, about the upcoming four concert tours - and become a supporter of this exciting project! As a supporter, you will receive an attractive and exclusive insight into the concert tours. You will receive free tickets to the concerts as well as CDs from the A Tempo project. And you will take part in special events for sponsors, where you will learn about the background of the A Tempo Project and new forms of interpretation. To cut it short: you become a part of a great adventure!

Please do not hesitate to contact Bernhard Ruchti directly if you have any further questions. The brochure is written in German, but Bernhard will be happy to provide you with any information in English.

Download crowdfunding brochure

Join the Crowdfunding online!

It is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's last and perhaps most beautiful piano concerto: the Concerto in B flat major K595. He completed it in January 1791. It seems that there was no particular occasion for the composition. Mozart was facing personal difficulties at the time, as his popularity in Vienna was declining and the public showed decreasing interest in his art.

Unlike earlier concertos, the B flat major concerto is more introvert. It shows a unique balance between melancholy and a relaxed cheerfulness. Its first movement contains harmonies of almost unearthly beauty. The second movement, a Larghetto, is one of those perfectly simple melodies that only Mozart could write. Finally, the theme of the last movement is a melody that Mozart was to use again a little later for his famous song "Komm lieber Mai".

I am delighted to be able to perform this piano concerto with an orchestra under the direction of Lukas Bolt in St. Laurenzen. The concert also includes Anton Bruckner's early Missa Solemnis in B flat major. Due to the matching key of the two works, the concert is entitled "B flat major".

Sunday, September 22, 2024, 7:00 pm, Church of St. Laurenzen, St. Gallen.

coro veloce
vocal ensemble con passione
Choir circle St. Gallen | Project singers
Orchestra archi lusingandi sinfonici
Lukas Bolt, Management

I am sure that Franz Liszt would have been delighted with the new Goll organ at St. Laurenzen (St. Gallen, Switzerland): on the one hand, it is as flexible in sound as the best concert grand piano. On the other hand, it has a symphonic power and countless colors like the individual instruments of an orchestra. In addition, the sound of this orgen literally comes from all sides and adds a new transparency and architectural dimension to the music.

Franz Liszt's magnificent Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale "Ad Nos, ad salutarem undam", written in1850, has fascinated me for many years. I love it as a masterpiece. It is also one of the core works of my A Tempo Project, as it is one of the most outstanding examples of a different tempo practice: several historical sources indicate its duration with 40-45 minutes - whereas today's performances are usually in a 25-28 minute range.

Following historical sources and reports on the Ad Nos Fantasy, my interpretation therefore needs more time, more space, more breathing - and that is exactly what the new Laurenzen organ can offer. I'm thrilled to be able to perform this unique work on September 1, 2024 as part of the opening concert of the 1st Laurenzen Autumn Organ Festival.

For those who want to learn more I will be delivering a half-hour introduction to the work and its history before the concert (in German).

Sunday, September 1, 2024
16:15: Introduction (in German)
17:30: Concert
For the concert a Seat reservation is obligatory: https://eventfrog.ch/ruchtisg2

Information about the festival: laurenzen.ch

A special moment in my career as a composer is approaching: the premiere of my new work Lachrimae for mezzo-soprano, violin and organ. The title is inspired by the famous Lachrimae (“Tears”) by John Dowland from the late 16th century – but in fact it is a kind of modern Stabat Mater Dolorosa– a contemporary lament that expresses different characters of tears. I wrote the piece especially for the new Surround organ at St. Laurenzen church.

The lyrics for my piece are based on poems by the St. Gallen poet Meie Lutz, which she published some time ago and whose profoundness and lightness at the same time touch me deeply.

It is a pleasure to have Melanie Veser, a singer with great expression and a wonderful voice, and Elisabeth Kohler, a violinist with an outstandingly clear and at the same time heartfelt sound, for the world premiere.

Kathrin Bolt will read texts from the Bible.

Friday, March 29, 2024, 6:00 pm, Church of St. Laurenzen, St. Gallen.

Preview by stgallen24.ch

It is perhaps the most transcendent and visionary work I know: Franz Liszt’s magnificent (and only) Piano Ponata in B minor. Volume 9 of the A Tempo Project is dedicated to it. The more I discovered the countless details of the compositions and developed my own rendition, the more I was stunned by the profundity and freedom of Liszt’s masterpiece.

At first, Liszt’s Sonata doesn’t appear to be easy to perceive. As a result, it is not that often performed in public. But once we start listening to the incredible richness of sound and the sheer beauty of its harmonies, there is literally no end to the discoveries.

In my introduction videos, I talk about the subject of transcendence and its mysterious connection to tempo. It is therefore no coincidence that the final recording of this cycle of the A Tempo Project ends with Liszt’s Sonata.

The recording venue is the newly renovated hall of the Stadtcasino Basel, which has wonderful acoustics. The instrument I used is a Bösendorfer VC280, which adds so much warmth and color to Liszt’s music.

I am proud of this recording and happy to be able to share it!

On September 3, 2023, the long-awaited inauguration of the new Goll organ took place at the St. Laurenzen church in St. Gallen (Switzerland). For more than seven years me and my team had been working on this project. At the beginning of 2016, I developed the idea of a “surround organ” with four different pipe locations that together form a unique instrument that fills the entire church. Since then, the instrument had been planned in detail – in a fruitful and inspiring collaboration with Simon Hebeisen, CEO of the organ building company Goll in Lucerne.

For two weeks it seemed as if the entire city of St. Gallen was taken by the beauty and the excitement of the new organ. The inauguration included services, concerts, vespers and a lecture.

Organists from abroad joined me and my colleagues in St. Gallen and made the festival varied and colorful. I am very grateful how warmly the new organ was received by the public. It was a wonderful celebration!

The Website of the organ project allows a closer look at the instrument and offers a calendar for upcoming events (in German).

TVO coverage of the organ project (in German)

Photos: Klaus Stadler

For the first time within the A Tempo project I play and talk about the music of Franz Schubert. Unlike Beethoven or Chopin, Schubert is not a composer who is often discussed in terms of tempo. There are hardly any metronome markings for his works. In addition, there is not much precise information about the way he played his own works. Nevertheless, his music is predestined to be looked at with a special focus on tempo.

The Piano Sonata in C minor D958 is one of Schubert’s last piano works. The piece is like a symphony: dramatic, grand and profound. For my interpretation, I chose an unconventional approach: I explored the question of what tempo the piece would have – if it were a song. I talk about the background and the surprising result in my introductions.

The recording venue is the Cuvilliés Theater in the Munich Residence: a magnificent Rococo theatre that matches perfectly with Schubert’s imaginative Piano Sonata.

An innovative new organ is being built in the St. Laurenzen city church in St. Gallen (Switzerland). In addition to the existing organ from 1978, three new pipe divisions are being built on the three galleries of the church. The new divisions represent the three main families of pipes that each organ has: diapasons (west gallery), flutes (south gallery) and strings (north gallery). These will be combined with the existing organ to form an instrument that will fill the entire church space with sound.

Many names for the instrument have been found in the media: Surround organ, 3D organ, quadraphonic organ…. However, the most appropriate name would be “prism organ”. The organ will do acoustically what a prism does optically with the light of the sun: it disperses the overall sound into the individual “spectral sounds”.

I created that concept seven years ago. Together with the organ builder we developed and consolidated the concept. The collaboration with Orgelbau Goll from Lucerne was and is immensely inspiring and fruitful. Thanks to the help of many people, the necessary funds could be raised. Now the instrument is actually being installed, and preparations for the inauguration in September 2023 are in full swing.

The website www.laurenzen.ch provides information and insight into this unique project (in German).

Follow us on Instagram!

Chopin wrote his Nocturne Op. 37 No. 1 in 1839. In the same year the Érard concert grand piano on which I play it, was built. Instrument and music come together in a unique symbiosis. The piece was one of the first works by Chopin that I learned as a young pianist. To this day, I love the chorale-like middle section with its incomparable atmosphere.

Recorded as an encore to Beethoven A Tempo III at the La Prairie Cultural Center near Biel (Switzerland).