Hyperion Records

Born in 1963, Markus Becker studied with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and gained additional inspiration from Alfred Brendel. He has been a Professor at the Musikhochschule in Hannover since 1993. For many years he has been a persuasive and articulate interpreter of the piano literature ranging from Bach to Rihm, and has found a second home in jazz. He regularly performs at such major festivals as the Ruhr Piano Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Kissinger Sommer and the Beethoven Festival Bonn, and has also made guest appearances at the Salzburg Easter Festival.

Markus Becker has given concerts with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed regularly with, among others, Marcus R Bosch, Alun Francis, Howard Griffiths, Carlos Kalmar, Eiji Oue and Steven Sloane. As well as giving acclaimed performances of concertos by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and Gershwin, he has also revived concertos by Draeseke, Hindemith, Jadassohn, Pfitzner, and the two concertos for the left hand by Franz Schmidt. His chamber music partners include Alban Gerhardt, Sharon Kam and Albrecht Mayer.

Following his acclaimed debut CD with the F sharp minor sonatas of Brahms and Schumann, and further recordings for Harmonia Mundi and EMI, Markus Becker recorded the first complete edition of Max Reger’s piano works. This series of twelve CDs has been awarded the ‘Deutscher Schallplattenpreis’ and the ‘ECHO-Klassik-Prize 2000’ for the best solo recording of music from the nineteenth century. For Hyperion Markus has recorded piano concertos by Widor, Jadassohn and Draeseke, Bach-Reger transcriptions, Erwin Schulhoff with violinist Tanja Becker-Bender, and Reger cello sonatas with Alban Gerhardt.