Markus Becker - Reger: Piano Concerto & Solo works (2019) [Official Digital Download]

"I’ve been playing and studying Reger’s piano music for a long time now. In the 1990s, not long after graduation, I recorded his complete works for solo piano. Ever since then, I’ve been featuring Reger frequently in my recitals: not only solo piano pieces, but chamber music including violin, clarinet and cello sonatas, the works for two pianos, piano trios, quartets, and Lieder. Reger composed an impressive quantity of music in almost all genres.

Of course I’ve been familiar with the Piano Concerto for a long time, but I only recorded it for the first time live in January 2017. That is the source for the recording on this album. To be honest, at first I had my doubts about this piece. So many notes, all the dense chords, and rapid changes of register –daunting leaps across the keyboard! – along with extreme dynamics (pppp and ffff). We already encounter that kind of superabundance elsewhere in Reger, but here he takes it to the extreme. The 'full' piano is usually playing in tandem with the full orchestra. In our rehearsals, Joshua Weilerstein, the Radio Philharmonic and I were constantly working on trying to achieve the right balance between the orchestra and the piano…" – Markus Becker

Tracklist:
01. Piano Concerto in F Minor, Op. 114: I. Allegro moderato (Live)
02. Piano Concerto in F Minor, Op. 114: II. Largo con gran espressione (Live)
03. Piano Concerto in F Minor, Op. 114: III. Allegretto con spirito (Live)
04. Episoden, Op. 115: I. Andante
05. Episoden, Op. 115: II. Andantino con moto
06. Episoden, Op. 115: III. Allegretto
07. Episoden, Op. 115: IV. Andante sostenuto
08. Episoden, Op. 115: V. Larghetto
09. Lose Blaetter, Op. 13: XII. Choral

Personnel:
Markus Becker, piano
NDR Radiophilharmonie
Joshua Weilerstein, conductor