# Max Reger



## Bach

I heard his Clarinet Quintet yesterday and thought it was very beautiful. Comes recommended. His string quartets seem to be rather good too, although I haven't explored them extensively..


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## Mirror Image

You should check out his orchestral works. There's a 7-CD set out on Berlin Classics that I heard is pretty good.


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## Tapkaara

I'm only somewhat familiar with his organ output. Good stuff, if a little aloof.


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## Sebastien Melmoth

Big Reger fan: he's like a Modernistic Brahms--especially in his extensive chamber œuvre.

Yes, his Clarinet Quintet is right up there at least with Fuchs' and Hindemith's.

His five String Quartets; two Piano Quartets; Violin Sonatas; Cello Sonatas; Piano Trio; Piano Quintet; and masterpiece, the String Sextet (a new reading recently issued):
http://www.amazon.com/Reger-Clarine...=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1271796087&sr=1-5


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## joen_cph

Among the vocal works, his "Requiem nach Hebbel" has very beautiful musical content, cf. the Bader recording, but its text repeats the gloomy words "_Seele, Vergisst Nicht Den Tod_" a little too many times. Another impressive, more varied vocal work is the monumental "Gesang der Verklärten".


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## cwarchc

I've just "discovered" Reger, by his Quintet for clarinet.
Very very good.
He appears to be a little underrated?


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## quack

I think it's those glasses, he looks pretty threatening, I think he might get violent if you dare say anything critical.









As people said above, his requiem is good and I really like his string quartets, nervous, tense and fascinating.


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## Vaneyes

Reger's famous quote -

"I am sitting in the smallest room of the house. I have your review before me. In a moment, it will be behind me."

I like much of Max's work, while leaning toward the orchestral. Recommendations: Brocklin Suite & Hiller Variations, with Jarvi; Romantic Suite and Mozart Variations, with Zagrosek and Salonen.

Don't forget the piano works with Hamelin. Sidenote: Reger taught George Szell.

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## KenOC

Vaneyes said:


> Reger's famous quote -


And Irving Kolodin's comment: "Reger might be epitomized as a composer whose name is the same either forward or backward, and whose music, curiously, often displays the same characteristic."


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## Vaneyes

Irving who?


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## KenOC

Vaneyes said:


> Irving who?


[sigh] You young folks today...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Kolodin


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## Ukko

Vaneyes said:


> Irving who?


Hah. Sometimes the reach for a bon mot sprains the critic's brain.

Reger composed three (I think) suites for solo viola; I've heard Trampler play 1 and 3 on LP. Excellent stuff.


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## elgar's ghost

Can hardly believe how much the man composed and yet he died in his early 40s. I've only one disc of his chamber work so I've neglected him badly considering I'm a big fan of late romantic chamber music in general - I'll have to get more one day.


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## Krummhorn

Tapkaara said:


> I'm only somewhat familiar with his organ output. Good stuff, if a little aloof.


Indeed ... _Benedictus_, for organ solo is a wonderful piece to play - and is well received in a concert environment as it exploits the entire tonal resources of the organ it is being performed on.

Kh ♫


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## SottoVoce

One of the most unjustly underrated composers in my opinion. I love almost everything I've heard from him, especially some of his piano music; reminds me of another set of Brahms intermezzos basically, which are my favorite set of piano pieces.


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## quack

Wow never knew that Reger did two hands piano transcriptions of the Brandeburgs and Bach's Orchestral Suites. I'm always fascinated by piano reductions, will have to get these.


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## Catharsis

Reger's 'Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H, Op.46' is well worth a listen:


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## LindnerianSea

Really looking forward to buying the newly released set from Brilliant Classics next week !


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## dbcrow

Max Reger has been my discovery of the year. His organ music was the gateway for other genres, and I find his orchestral, chamber, and, especially, choral music to be outstanding and original. You gotta love any composer who's been characterized (and vilified) as a hopelessly retrospective Bach imitator who, at the same time, anticipated Hindemith; a true Brahmsian child of German Romanticism; and a daring, Lisztian/Wagnerian chromaticist who would sire Viennese atonalism. 

I understand that his music was (is?) out of fashion among audience and critics alike. Something about "torturous" and "meandering" harmonic structures, endless fugue and counterpoint, etc. 

Where do Talk Classical members stand on Reger? Can somebody help me understand his critical fortunes? Are they now waxing? It may simply be that I don't know enough about music to dislike Reger!


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## Vaneyes

Re Composer Guestbooks/Reger, would a Mod kindly merge this Reger thread with the newly-formed Reger thread. Thanks. :tiphat:


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## Vaneyes

Request to Mod to kindly merge the two Composer Guestbooks/Reger threads. Thanks. :tiphat:


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## dbcrow

Vaneyes said:


> Request to Mod to kindly merge the two Composer Guestbooks/Reger threads. Thanks. :tiphat:


Sorry! I looked through all the pages for a Reger thread, but must have missed it.


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## dbcrow

I started the new thread. My apologies. I had searched for an already existing Reger thread, but apparently missed it.


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## joen_cph

^^^

Concerning your started thread, Reger certainly hasn´t had much support among non-German-speaking musicians in the 20th century; Rudolf Serkin was one of the few who tried to promote him "abroad". He wasn´t really dealt with by prestigious record labels either, except from a few DG releases now and then. Even today, his chamber music is quite poorly served by recordings, for example.
There are attractive works enough in the oeuvre to have justified an alternative course of events, though ...


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## elgar's ghost

dbcrow's OP from other thread...

'Max Reger has been my discovery of the year. His organ music was the gateway for other genres, and I find his orchestral, chamber, and, especially, choral music to be outstanding and original. You gotta love any composer who's been characterized (and vilified) as a hopelessly retrospective Bach imitator who, at the same time, anticipated Hindemith; a true Brahmsian child of German Romanticism; and a daring, Lisztian/Wagnerian chromaticist who would sire Viennese atonalism. 

I understand that his music was (is?) out of fashion among audience and critics alike. Something about "torturous" and "meandering" harmonic structures, endless fugue and counterpoint, etc. 

Where do Talk Classical members stand on Reger? Can somebody help me understand his critical fortunes? Are they now waxing? It may simply be that I don't know enough about music to dislike Reger!'

___________________________


The music of Max Reger has probably provided the biggest u-turn in my classical listening so far. I had a few orchestral and chamber works by him and although I could listen to them I initially thought them stodgy, anachronistic and seemingly unable to escape the shackles of Brahms. Perhaps I also had too many preconceptions due to his unfashionable penchant for fugal writing at a time when composers such as Ives, Skryabin and Schoenberg were going down completely different paths. 

Then suddenly something happened and I totally warmed to those very same compositions which led to me taking the plunge and buying an excellent 7-disc set on Berlin Classics of nearly all of his orchestral works. For stodgy/anachronistic/ersatz Brahms read sturdy but logical/taking some long-established forms to their absolute limit/with a voice of its own. 

It's mind-boggling how many works he might have composed in total had he lived another 25 years (I'm sure he was biding his time in Brahmsian fashion before tackling the symphony), but what is tantalising is how his style would have evolved had he made it into the 1920s.


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## TurnaboutVox

I heard his string quartets and the clarinet quintet for the first time earlier this year (Drolc Quartet with Karl Leister, DG) and also thought them very fine indeed, perhaps paving the way for Hindemith and Bartok's later works.


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## Guest

People of TCland, what are your favorite Reger mediums/genres/subgenres?

Interesting that I first heard of Reger when reading about the organ repertoire, and yet people speak more often of his quartets or his orchestral variations. Nothing has disappointed yet, among selections from his clarinet sonatas, string quartets, orchestral works, and organ works. Well, there was one chorale fantasia (I believe it was the one on Ein Feste Burg) that seemed a little awkward.


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## brotagonist

About a decade ago, I heard three sonatas, either violin or viola. I was rather fond of them and all of these years, I have been curious about his other works. Today, after Mahlerian's hint, I explored a good number of works, choosing the famous Clarinet Quintet, his Fifth String Quartet, Träume am Kamin for solo piano and An die Hoffnung for voice and piano. I was hesitant and vacillating, but intrigued enough to hear some orchestral works, too. I picked the Romantic Suite, the Piano Concerto and the Sinfonietta. It was the latter which finally decided me-I want to hear more Reger!

Reger was an organist and the organ seems to sound through his music, so I intend to hear some of his organ works next. I have the impression that his music sounds, at first listen, lighter than it really is. I haven't made up my mind yet, whether he'll be in my _hearem_


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## starthrower

New box on Warner Classics. 8 CDs for cheap. Heavy on the organ music.
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Warner+Classics/9029597482

The Brilliant box has more variety and 11 CDs for another 5 dollars.
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Brilliant+Classics/94663


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## chromatic owl

If Bach, Brahms and Wagner had a child, it would be... Never mind. 
Apart from his organ works I am not very familiar with the majority of Reger's output, unfortunately. 


> I understand that his music was (is?) out of fashion among audience and critics alike. Something about "torturous" and "meandering" harmonic structures, endless fugue and counterpoint, etc.


 His chromaticism and contrapuntal writing appeal to me very much. Since I am obsessed with fugues, I am quite fond of his style! 
I was also very impressed with the Mozart Variations, he was definitely a great orchestrator. I am really looking forward to discovering more of his compositions, especially his lieder and chamber music.


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## Sonata

I've never listened to Max Reger and I never had an interest previously. After hearing on this thread of clarinet chamber music and a resemblance to Brahms I have changed my mind  I'll try some Reger this weekend


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## Janspe

I listened to Reger's String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 109 today and I really enjoyed it - especially the fugal finale, great stuff! I think I need to explore his music deeper, as I've liked or at least been interested in all of his pieces I've heard so far.

This thread has been silent since 2012, maybe it's time for some up-to-date Reger opinions! I wish there were more recordings available of his work.


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## Chatellerault

I haven't listened carefully enough to his chamber and orchestral works but I wasn't quite impressed from what I heard. I'm sure it's quite hard for a German composer to make a strong impression after Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Wagner.

His organ music seems much more original to me: none of the German 19th century composers had made extensive contributions to the organ repertoire and, because the instrument had greatly developped since the days of J.S. Bach, Reger's organ music is quite unique and perfectly idiomatic to romantic organs.

Let me quote from a biography of organ manufacturer Wilhelm Sauer (1831-1916)

_It is assumed that Sauer learned how to build high-quality overblowing pipes there [in Paris at Cavaillé-Coll's workshop]. Sauer's sound concept was based on the sound of the late-romantic symphonic orchestra and he tried to transform this sound into the organs.

The German romantic organ is like a paint-box, where you can add a lot of colours, thus getting new ones by additive mixing. Therefore you usually find a lot of 8ft stops. The registration is completely different from baroque organs. You always look for orchestral-like tonal colours. The mixtures only crown the sound, but aren't leading voices. (...)

When playing or listening to this organ [from Dortmund-Dorstfeld, 1904], you will have the original sound of 1904 with a strong relation especially to the music of Max Reger. Reger himself and Sauer had good relations. Straube performed a lot of Reger works on the big Sauer organ of Leipzig.

The Dorstfeld organ has a wide range from very soft tonal colours (pppp) up to a very strong Tutti with some "brute force", which is necessary for Reger's work (ffff)._


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## Lenny

Amazing clip from a documentary Max Reger: The Last Giant - Reger plays Reger: Fugue Op.56iii and chorale Op.67xxv 

Last Giant has left the planet Earth, but he's still with us in some form, playing this strange machine with "punch cards".


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## Portamento

Chatellerault said:


> *I haven't listened carefully enough to his chamber and orchestral works but I wasn't quite impressed from what I heard.* I'm sure it's quite hard for a German composer to make a strong impression after Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Wagner.


Surely you haven't heard Reger's clarinet quintet, his crowning achievement in chamber music? Here is a great performance on YouTube - 



.

Other favorites:
Cello Sonata No. 4 - 



.
Violin Sonata No. 9 - 



.
Piano Quartet No. 1 - 



.
String Quartet No. 4 - 



.

As for orchestral music, the Sinfonietta is a very fine work indeed - 



. The violin concerto follows in the tradition of Brahms, but nevertheless has the undeniable stamp of Reger - 



.

Another underrated facet of Reger's ouevre are his piano works. The masterpiece among them are the Bach Variations - 



. The Telemann Variations are also quite grand - 



.

Reger contributed to the solo repertoire greatly with his three suites each for cello and viola solo, along with a set of preludes and fugues for violin solo.

Here is a playlist of my favorite recording of the Reger cello suites on YouTube.





As you will soon see, there is a whole lot more to Reger than his (also wonderful) organ music.


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## Roger Knox

Lenny said:


> Amazing clip from a documentary Max Reger: The Last Giant - Reger plays Reger: Fugue Op.56iii and chorale Op.67xxv


_Maximum Reger_, the 6-DVD set that includes the above clip, has received positive reviews in _BBC Magazine_ among others. The set includes a documentary by Fugue State Films and a long list of recorded works. Disc 6 includes the beautiful 4 Boecklin tone poems, which demonstrate his wonderful capability for orchestral composition. It is great to see Reger receiving more attention in Britain, and I hope for the same on my side of the Atlantic Ocean (Americas, are you reading?) The problem with Reger has been that people hear a few pieces that they do not care for and then dismiss him, without ever being aware of his enormous and diverse body of work.


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## 13hm13

Hmm .... the guy's opus is huge (> 1000 works according to the documentary).

Decided to sample some of his works on YouTube. I don't care much for his organ stuff, thus far.

On the other hand, Reger's more-romantic offerings are intriguing:


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## flamencosketches

After hearing a Bach transcription for organ played by the organist Paul Jacobs, transcribed by the "crazy German Romantic composer Max Reger", my interest has been piqued. So I've checked out a few of his works and what I've heard has been great, and very original.











These two in particular stand out. Seems he was extremely prolific, but died young and has been largely forgotten.

What are some great works of his that are worth exploring? Any genre.


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## elgar's ghost

flamencosketches said:


> After hearing a Bach transcription for organ played by the organist Paul Jacobs, transcribed by the "crazy German Romantic composer Max Reger", my interest has been piqued. So I've checked out a few of his works and what I've heard has been great, and very original.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> These two in particular stand out. Seems he was extremely prolific, but died young and has been largely forgotten.
> 
> What are some great works of his that are worth exploring? Any genre.


A previous post (no. 35) by Portamento gives some excellent suggestions - I would sample some of those and see what you think.


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## flamencosketches

^Good call, EG. I'd missed his post.






Another excellent work, I think. Almost Schoenbergian, no?


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## Guest

I find Reger a struggle. The Suites for Cello unaccompanied are the only works I can bring to mind which made an immediate positive impression. The Cello Sonatas have been opague to me. I remember enjoying the String Quartets and Clarinet Quintet after some effort to come to terms with them. My overall impression is that he tends to over-embellish, and try to put in so many ideas that the structure is obscured.


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## Bulldog

I love Reger's chamber works and solo cello works, but I find his organ music very heavy. The orchestral works do nothing for me.


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## Guest

Bulldog said:


> I love Reger's chamber works and solo cello works, but I find his organ music very heavy. The orchestral works do nothing for me.


Yes, with the orchestral works, so many music lines to fill in, he can't restrain himself.


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## flamencosketches

I really like the Romantic Suite. I didn't find it terribly heavy or dense at all, no more so than a Bruckner or Brahms symphony anyway. Perhaps he has other orchestral works that are worse offenders?


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## Guest

flamencosketches said:


> I really like the Romantic Suite. I didn't find it terribly heavy or dense at all, no more so than a Bruckner or Brahms symphony anyway. Perhaps he has other orchestral works that are worse offenders?


I don't tend to find it "heavy." I find it "fussy," "unfocused." An idea but so many vines growing on it that is is impossible to discern.


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## Bulldog

Baron Scarpia said:


> Yes, with the orchestral works, so many music lines to fill in, he can't restrain himself.


My problem with Reger's orchestral works is that I find them overly syrupy. When music starts sounding like Howard Hanson's, I leave the building.


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## Guest

Bulldog said:


> My problem with Reger's orchestral works is that I find them overly syrupy. When music starts sounding like Howard Hanson's, I leave the building.


Ok, listening to the beginning Romantic Suite now. This is your syrupy stuff. I can cope with it but I see what you mean. More plush than I usually prefer.

Last time I tried Reger it was one of the Orchestral Variations (Mozart, Hiller maybe) and the figuration was out of control, I turned it off.


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## elgar's ghost

Best you don't tackle either the violin or piano concertos, then.


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## Fabulin

I try out music of previously unknown composers every other day, and yet I can't remember the last time I listened to music with a jaw ajar, as was the case with 2 Romances for Violin & Orchestra Op. 50. Toast to the memory of a man whose music I've been listening for hours today and can't get enough of. To Max Reger! 
:tiphat:


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## starthrower

From the 6 DVD set.


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## flamencosketches

6 DVDs?! Damn! There must be more to Reger than I thought...

I got a CD with some of his organ music recently, a few Chorale Fantasias and other assorted shorter organ pieces. The Fantasias are absolutely massive, and extremely dense. They take some dedication to get through. He's a good composer, I think, but one of the more "academic" of the Romantic composers.


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## Fabulin

"Some of Reger's music has a polished harmonic sheen, like hollywood film music from the 1950s".

Yes!


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## starthrower

flamencosketches said:


> 6 DVDs?! Damn! There must be more to Reger than I thought...
> 
> I got a CD with some of his organ music recently, a few Chorale Fantasias and other assorted shorter organ pieces. The Fantasias are absolutely massive, and extremely dense. They take some dedication to get through. He's a good composer, I think, but one of the more "academic" of the Romantic composers.


Some beautiful pieces for organ, violin and soprano on the cheap Oehms CD I got from JPC. I'm going to explore more chamber and organ music. His string quartets sound good. There's a good set on CPO.


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## Janspe

About a week ago I realized that my well-meaning intention to delve into Reger's world hasn't led me anywhere, though the idea has been brewing in my head for a few years. Now I have finally taken matters into my own hands and started a grand project.

First step: the nine sonatas for piano and violin. 6 out of 9 listened, and I'm quite eager to continue the project. So far my favourite has been the F-sharp minor sonata, Op. 84. The more I listen to Reger, the more his musical language opens up to me. It's often harmonically _very_ dense and the melodic phrasing sometimes leaves me completely bewildered; however, it's getting easier and easier.

And what am I discovering beneath the thick surface? A composer who masterfully crafted works of convincing seriousness; a curiously beautiful mix of late romantisicm and early modernism - really difficult to define. Even when I sometimes don't understand what Reger is trying to say - had this experience with the Clarinet Quintet last week - I can feel it that I _want_ to. This "instinct" has never failed me before and has led to life-long appreciation of composers I was hesitant to approach at first.

I know this is a bit silly, but ... something that I really like about Reger is how neatly a lot of his work can be put into categories. Easy to approach! Violin sonatas, string quartets, piano trios, cello sonatas, string trios... Nice and easy categories that my brain feels comfortable with!


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## elgar's ghost

Janspe, I was a Reger naysayer for years and then boom! Isn't it great when that happens? As your project progresses I'll be interested in your further thoughts.


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## Janspe

elgars ghost said:


> Janspe, I was a Reger naysayer for years and then boom! Isn't it great when that happens? As your project progresses I'll be interested in your further thoughts.


Encouraging words! Yes, it is an amazing phenomenon. I'm a 100% believer in the infamous "getting used to" method of listening, regardless of the era we're talking about. Many of my absolute favourite composers did very little to me on the first few encounters. To think what I would have missed out of had I not persevered!

I will definitely write about my experiences here as I progress. :tiphat:


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## mbhaub

flamencosketches said:


> 6 DVDs?! Damn! There must be more to Reger than I thought...
> 
> I got a CD with some of his organ music recently, a few Chorale Fantasias and other assorted shorter organ pieces. The Fantasias are absolutely massive, and extremely dense. They take some dedication to get through. He's a good composer, I think, but one of the more "academic" of the Romantic composers.


Thanks to this thread, I bought the 6 DVD set - it was a revelation! I've only really known some of Reger's orchestral works, but damn, that man wrote well! Now I need to start exploring the rest of his massive output. He sure wrote a lot of music. The last of the greats? Not sure about that, but severely underrated and underperformed, at least in the US. Brilliant orchestrator, no question. Some of the organ music I've heard is very dense and challenging, but not "syrupy" in my opinion. Now, can we expect a Brilliant Box of "Max Reger Complete" any time?


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## elgar's ghost

mbhaub said:


> Thanks to this thread, I bought the 6 DVD set - it was a revelation! I've only really known some of Reger's orchestral works, but damn, that man wrote well! Now I need to start exploring the rest of his massive output. He sure wrote a lot of music. The last of the greats? Not sure about that, but severely underrated and underperformed, at least in the US. Brilliant orchestrator, no question. Some of the organ music I've heard is very dense and challenging, but not "syrupy" in my opinion. _Now, can we expect a Brilliant Box of "Max Reger Complete" any time?_


The closest we can hope for (even if inter-label licensing issues were sorted out) is a Max Reger (Almost) Complete box set - the main black hole is that many of Reger's lieder remain unrecorded (he composed over 200 of them). Even without those I reckon that a box set of everything that is available would amount to nearly 70 discs.


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## MusicSybarite

The violin sonatas are his chamber works I like the least. Many of them look like mere successions of notes without any direction and often emotionless or dry. The clarinet sonatas are in the same field, though I tolerate them better.


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## regenmusic

Lenny said:


> Amazing clip from a documentary Max Reger: The Last Giant - Reger plays Reger: Fugue Op.56iii and chorale Op.67xxv
> 
> Last Giant has left the planet Earth, but he's still with us in some form, playing this strange machine with "punch cards".


Nobody plays like that today. You cannot notate that kind of playing. Very impressive.


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## regenmusic

Max Reger "Romantic Suite op. 125"


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## ThankYouKiwi

I have only recently gotten into Reger's music, but I just want to say how much I adore his Op. 71 Gesang der Verklarten. It really should be more well known. It's the most hectic, insanely contrapuntal thing i've ever heard. It's basically unfollowable, so you just have to sit back and let the titanic harmonies wash over you. It also just looks crazy on paper haha. It's transcendental. I look forward to digging deeper into his ouput!


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## elgar's ghost

^
^

Would you know if the op.71 you posted about is available on any recording apart from the DG box set of orchestral works?


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## Ice Berg

I am obsessed. The clarinet quintet, both string trios, the ninth violin sonata, all the organ works. The sinfonia is very underrated. Sometimes he's like Bach on acid; sometimes, it's like cubist Chopin. The range this man showed in such a short period of time was inhuman.


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## Janspe

Ice Berg said:


> I am obsessed. The clarinet quintet, both string trios, the ninth violin sonata, all the organ works. The sinfonia is very underrated. Sometimes he's like Bach on acid; sometimes, it's like cubist Chopin. The range this man showed in such a short period of time was inhuman.


Well put! Having read your post, I really feel like listening to Reger again... It's been a while. There are still countless works to discover!


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## fluteman

I have to put a shout in for two great Reger chamber music pieces: his two Serenades for flute, violin and viola, Op. 77 and Op. 141a. Both are riffs on Beethoven's Serenade for the same trio of instruments, his Op. 25. Both are beautiful, and feature fiendishly clever reflections on the Beethoven piece that inspired them, especially Op. 77.

Also I concur regarding his clarinet quintet and other clarinet music. Here's a selection from a fine recording of his music for clarinet and piano:


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## golfer72

I recently organized my CD's and seeing all the Reger CD's I am going to revisit the instrumental works. I think i have most of the solo violin, viola and cello works. Dont have any orchestral but these works should keep me busy for awhile!


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## SanAntone

Max Reger was a great composer. Enjoy your traversal.


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## Chatellerault

golfer72 said:


> I recently organized my CD's and seeing all the Reger CD's I am going to revisit the instrumental works. I think i have most of the solo violin, viola and cello works. Dont have any orchestral but these works should keep me busy for awhile!


No organ music? He has a vast oeuvre, including sonatas, suites, many chorals, choral fantasias...


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## Kreisler jr

Reger has strong pieces in all genres except opera but I think that the two (only) genres where he is frequently performed nowadays are choral and especially organ works. For German organist, Reger is clearly #2 after Bach, unless they have a particular specialization in another era. (I cannot comment on his organ music as I don't know much of it but it has been recorded several times over).
For me the most accessible Reger are the variations both for Orchestra (Mozart, Hiller) and piano (Bach, Telemann), the clarinet quintet and the Böcklin suite.


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## RobertJTh

The main problem with Reger's organ music - at least to me, as an organist - is that they're essentially unidiomatic, and are representatives of 19th organ music moving further and further away from the pure characteristics of the mechanical pipe organ.
Ok, this sounds more negative than I intended, but I think it's true that the path Reger (and some of his contemporaries and discliples like Karg-Elert) chose was basically dead-ended. The 20th century mostly dismissed romantic excesses and returned to baroque organ ideals.
One can argue that romantic excesses existed in other genres too, like orchestral music, with composers universally admired today like Mahler and Strauss excelling in, but the difference is that those composers used traditional means (existing orchestral instruments) to build new soundscapes, while Reger and his French predecessors and contemporaries (Franck, Widor, Vierne) tried to turn the organ into something that's alien to its design: a one-man orchestra, which should be capable of all kinds of unidiomatic effects: crescendi in general and even general crescendi (Rollschweller!), dismissal of the logical arrangement of 16, 8, 4, 2 ft. stops on every "Werk" in favor of masses of stops that only contribute tone color.

As an organist, I started out admiring the French romantics, like everyone else, but after a while, I somehow felt the urge to return to an organ language that's more idiomatic and true to the roots of the instrument. That doesn't mean restraining one self and only play baroque music. There's a wealth of romantic organ music to be found that's more traditional in it's technical and tonal approach (but is far from inferior to the quasi-orchestral music from the same era). Rheinberger, for instance, is still under-valuated because people tend to compare his music to the more colorful output of his French contemporaries, and dismiss it as dull and grey. In my view, Rheinberger is just as great as Franck and vastly superior to Widor or Guilmant (but I guess that's fuel for another discussion).

Back to Reger!
I only started to explore the vast wealth of works beyond his organ music, and I agree with many people here that his orchestral music is the most accessible part of his oeuvre (though his violin- and piano concertos are tough, long, rewarding, but not without serious effort from the performance and listeners!)
There's one orchestral work that's maybe his most unjustly neglected and that's among his strangest and most exciting works: the "Symphonic Prologue for a Tragedy", op. 108, written when his harmonic idiom was at its absolute chromatic height.






Compared to his other orchestral works, there are only a handful of recordings available, and some of them are cut. It's basically a huge one-movement symphony, written in a very extended sonata form. Nowhere came Reger so close to Mahler than here.


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## Kreisler jr

The Schoenberg circle with their "Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen" were quite fond both of Mahler's and Reger's music. Also the Busch family and Serkin; Rudolf's recording of the piano concerto is unfortunately out of print and even worse, Peter Serkin never made a commercial recording of the piece although he played it and there are radio tapes. OTOH that even pianists of the range of the Serkins or Hamelin could not really establish some of Reger's piano pieces as standard repertoire (there is no reason why the Telemann and Bach variations should not be about as popular as Brahm's Handel variations) shows that there is only so much one can do with "difficult" music.


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## RobertJTh

fluteman said:


> Also I concur regarding his clarinet quintet and other clarinet music. Here's a selection from a fine recording of his music for clarinet and piano:


Fun fact: the work you linked to (the 2nd clarinet sonata in F sharp minor) is one of the very few works in music history that use a triple sharp (x#)...









Harmonically it looks like an F# major chord with prolonged double chromatic appogiaturas for the 3rd and 5th. And the middle appogiatura (G double sharp) gets a changing note from below (F triple sharp)
Reger, you absolute madman!


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## RobertJTh

ThankYouKiwi said:


> I have only recently gotten into Reger's music, but I just want to say how much I adore his Op. 71 Gesang der Verklarten. It really should be more well known. It's the most hectic, insanely contrapuntal thing i've ever heard. It's basically unfollowable, so you just have to sit back and let the titanic harmonies wash over you. It also just looks crazy on paper haha. It's transcendental. I look forward to digging deeper into his ouput!


That work was unknown to me, thanks for the link!
And indeed, once you get over the initial overload, it becomes quite enjoyable to just go with the flow of the music. To let it overwhelm you.
This is one of those pieces that out-Strausses Strauss, and predates the chromatic sound-orgies of Scriabin. The amount of detail in the score borders on madness -on par with music like Schoenberg's Gurrelieder - and it's significant that it is never a "condensed" score, that is, with empty staves deleted in order to save space. There's hardly a page where you could do that, everyone is basically busy all the time!
And yes, this kind of "horror vacui" presents a problem for listeners, and it explains why a work like is isn't as popular as works by Mahler, Strauss, Scriabin or Schoenberg. Those composers knew when and where to leave "holes" in their scores, to keep their music transparent and accessible, giving their melodies a place in the spotlight. It isn't that Reger didn't know how to write catchy tunes (like the old prejudice goes), he just wasn't always interested in doing so. It seems that at this point in his life he was content by just defining complex harmonies and filling the textures with an extremely complex network of contrapuntal voices, none of which takes dominance over the others.
If I'm honest, I got to say that scores like this are easier to admire (for their technical mastery) than to love.


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## fluteman

I've mentioned here before, Reger's Serenades for flute, violin and viola, Op. 77 and Op. 141a. Both beautiful, and fiendishly clever, takes on Beethoven's Serenade Op. 25 for the same instruments (the influence of the Beethoven work is especially obvious in Op. 77). In general, Reger's chamber music is a great area to explore, especially for those who sometimes find his orchestral and organ music a bit too dense and overwhelming. But really, everything is worth exploring. To say he had an imposing intellect is understating the point.


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## SanAntone

I enjoy his lieder, both those with piano and orchestral.

Iris Vermillion, Peter Stamm


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## elgar's ghost

RobertJTh said:


> Fun fact: the work you linked to (the 2nd clarinet sonata in F sharp minor) is one of the very few works in music history that use a triple sharp (x#)...
> 
> View attachment 160092
> 
> 
> Harmonically it looks like an F# major chord with prolonged double chromatic appogiaturas for the 3rd and 5th. And the middle appogiatura (G double sharp) gets a changing note from below (F triple sharp)
> Reger, you absolute madman!


I didn't even know such a thing as a triple sharp could exist, but thanks to the snatch of notation in your post now I know. I can't read music but unusual quirks like that sometimes pique my interest. I admit that what else you went on to say went somewhat over my head but it was still good of you for pointing it out. :lol:


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## fluteman

elgars ghost said:


> I didn't even know such a thing as a triple sharp could exist, but thanks to the snatch of notation in your post now I know. I can't read music but unusual quirks like that sometimes pique my interest. I admit that what else you went on to say went somewhat over my head but it was still good of you for pointing it out. :lol:


In the good ole days, many traditional acoustic instruments were much easier to play in certain keys, such as D, G and C major and their relative minor keys, than, say, F-sharp major, where 6 of 7 notes in the scale are sharped. So traditional notation was set up to be much easier to read in those 'more common' keys. But Reger wasn't necessarily trying to do things the easy way.


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## RobertJTh

fluteman said:


> In the good ole days, many traditional acoustic instruments were much easier to play in certain keys, such as D, G and C major and their relative minor keys, than, say, F-sharp major, where 6 of 7 notes in the scale are sharped. So traditional notation was set up to be much easier to read in those 'more common' keys. But Reger wasn't necessarily trying to do things the easy way.


This particular piece is written in F# minor, which is an excellent key for an A clarinet to play in.
It's just that in the last movement coda, Reger goes for the happy ending (F# major) and things get kind of gnarly in the piano score.


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## golfer72

Chatellerault said:


> No organ music? He has a vast oeuvre, including sonatas, suites, many chorals, choral fantasias...


Never really liked organ music


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## 96 Keys

I've heard virtually nothing from him that I didn't like, but I especially like his chamber music, the Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto, and Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Bach.


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