Michał Bergson

Michał Bergson (Bergsohn) or Michel Bergson (20 May 1820 – 9 March 1898) was a Warsaw-born Polish composer and pianist, promoter of Chopin, son of Gabriel Bereksohn, grandson of Berek and Temerl Bergson, and great-grandson of Samuel Zbytkower. Two of his children were an influential French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson and an artist and occultist Moina Mathers, wife of Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers.

He learned from F. Schneider, Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen, and W. Taubert and worked mainly in Italy and Switzerland. In 1863 Michel Bergson became professor at the Conservatory in Geneva, and later was its head. Bergson married later a native of Yorkshire, Katherine Levison, they lived in London, England and France, finally settled there. He died in London.

Main works

• operas Luisa di Montfort (performed in 1847) and Salvator Rosa
• operetta Qui va à la chasse, perd sa place (1859)
• mazurka, Opp. 1 and 48
• Le Rhin, Op. 21
• 12 Études caractéristiques
• songs and others