Reinhard Becker

“The C. Bechstein D 282 concert grand conveys the pianist’s subconscious musicality with such intensity. The instrument is second to none when it comes to responding to the nuances of the key attack.”

Reinhard Becker studied music and musicology under piano professors Hans Kann (Vienna), Naoyuki Taneda (Karlsruhe), Hans Leygraf and Günter Reinhold. Becker has taught the piano at Trossingen University of Music since 1981, where he also ran the Keyboard, Harp and Guitar Department from 2001 to 2014. He has also been running a prep class at Villingen-Schwenningen Music Academy since 2005. In February 2012, he was elected as Artistic Director of the Königsfeld festival (Samstagskonzerte der Geistigen Nothilfe Königsfeld).

Becker has performed in numerous countries around the world (Brazil, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Kuwait, Singapore, Switzerland and the USA), chiefly interpreting works by Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt and Debussy. In 2014, his fondness of Beethoven prompted him to embark on the project Living Urtext, a modern edition of the composer’s complete sonata scores available on the music-on-demand website “inter-note”. Becker is particularly interested in continuously expanding the standard piano repertoire to include new compositions. He has performed on television and the radio and made a number of recordings. His first CD, recorded at the age of sixteen during a concert broadcast on the channel SDR, features works by Johann Sebastian Bach. His discography also includes pieces by Liszt and Haydn on the label Maple Grove Music Productions.

Photo © Addicks

Reinhard Becker plays works by Joseph Haydn

This is probably Reinhard Becker’s last recording on the C. Bechstein concert grand EN at Trossingen University of Music: in the summer of 2011, the institution acquired a new, colourful and melodious C. Bechstein D 282 concert grand. With this recording from 2009, however, Becker shows that the D grand’s forerunner was already suited to interpreting the works of Haydn with great subtlety and clarity.Becker’s recording for the Canadian label Maple Grove (RB 11025) includes Andante con Variazioni in F minor and the sonatas no. 33 and 59 to 61. This CD demonstrates that the former pupil of Hans Kann and Hans Leygraf – today an extremely successful piano teacher himself – has long devoted himself to Haydn. The interpretations seem completely natural; nothing comes across as exaggerated and yet everything is articulated immaculately. Reinhard Becker definitely has something to say when it comes to interpreting Joseph Haydn, whose “singing and speaking” style he renders perfectly.