# Where to start with Max Reger?



## Dedalus (Jun 27, 2014)

I think that Reger was a rather big composer. He was also very important. I imagine he was quite influential, and I know he has plenty of fans who _gravitate _toward his music. I know very little about the man's music, just a little bit of biographical information, so I was wondering if anybody could point me in a good direction to start getting to know this _substantial _composer. Was he a very _wide-reaching_ composer? Was he very _broad_? Was he a rather _weighty _composer? Was his ouvre quite _sizeable_? Any information or recommendations would be very welcome!


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

The fields where Reger is still a staple today is organ and choral music; I cannot say anything about these. I think he can be rather difficult to get into because many works are both dense and long.
I'd recommend as comparably accessible:
The orchestral variations: "Hiller", "Mozart" and the "Böcklin tone poems" (including an "Isle of the Dead")
The piano variations: "Bach" and "Telemann" (conveniently on one disc with Hamelin (hyperion))
The clarinet quintet (Naxos has two good recordings, one conveniently coupled with a late quartet) and the last two string quartets op.109 and 121 for the chamber music. Or if you really love solo cello, the 3 solo cello suites.


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Kreisler jr said:


> The fields where Reger is still a staple today is organ and choral music; I cannot say anything about these. I think he can be rather difficult to get into because many works are both dense and long.
> I'd recommend as comparably accessible:
> The orchestral variations: "Hiller", "Mozart" and the "Böcklin tone poems" (including an "Isle of the Dead")
> The piano variations: "Bach" and "Telemann" (conveniently on one disc with Hamelin (hyperion))
> The clarinet quintet (Naxos has two good recordings, one conveniently coupled with a late quartet) and the last two string quartets op.109 and 121 for the chamber music. Or if you really love solo cello, the 3 solo cello suites.


This is an excellent answer. For organ music, there are smaller, perhaps more accessible works such as the Choral Preludes, or Op. 80, or Op. 65, or Op. 69. The Introduction and Passacaglia in D minor (without opus) is one of my favorites of his. Another favorite is the variations and fugue on "God Save the King." I think there are some fifteen hours of organ music of his alone, most of which is unknown to most audiences.

To answer some more of your questions, I would characterize him as a prolific composer in a wide variety of genres. His style is late-Romantic, with dense, chromatic harmonies, and a particular focus on counterpoint. Many of his organ works take on Baroque forms (the choral preludes and passacaglia which I have mentioned are examples). He was a professor of counterpoint, after all. However the piano variations and string quartets are pieces I love, as are the piano concerto and violin concerto. He was a weighty composer for sure; his large-scale organ music can prove that. I draw a line in my head between him and Paul Hindemith; Hindemith's focus on counterpoint and his harmonic language are comparable to Reger's, but Hindemith is more sparse, less connected to the concept of tonality, and strips out a lot of the excesses of Reger.

Schoenberg considered Reger a “genius,” and Hindemith said, “Max Reger was the last giant in music. My own work is inconceivable without him.” (Although apparently Mahler and Stravinsky were opposed to Reger. Richard Strauss admired Reger.)


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

If you're into orchestral music there's one disk I highly recommend as a start: on the Orfeo label with Colin Davis and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra playing A Ballet Suite and the Hiller Variations. It's a delightful, beautiful look at Reger at his most attractive and appealing.


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## Dedalus (Jun 27, 2014)

Thanks for the replies! I always have an appetite for exploring new (to me) music and I can't wait to sink my teeth in.


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## Philidor (11 mo ago)

Monsalvat said:


> The Introduction and Passacaglia in D minor (without opus) is one of my favorites of his.


May I join your club? Great piece, indeed. And you don't have to rehearse half a year in order to play it ...

As for organ music, Fantasie über den Choral "Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme" op. 52/2 is quite accessible to my mind (in particular, if you know the underlying tune). The "Fantasie und Fuge über B-A-C-H" op. 46 is best-known and shows Reger's craziness in the fantasy and his counterpoint artistry in the fugue.

Toccata D minor and Fugue D major, op. 59 No. 5+6 are offering much of the special qualities of op. 46 in less time - just for a first try.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Dedalus said:


> Thanks for the replies! I always have an appetite for exploring new (to me) music and I can't wait to sink my teeth in.


Excellent suggestions here, so _bon appétit_. I hope you enjoy your _Hors d'oeuvres_, as there are some seriously rich meat courses waiting for you later!


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## alinkner1 (3 mo ago)

A great place to start, IMO, would be the Clarinet Quintet in A Major, Op. 146. Sublime music with many excellent recordings.


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

The main (and in my opinion unfounded) criticism about Reger's music is that he "couldn't write melodies". One can argue that the focus in his music isn't on melodic invention, and that he more than compensates for the supposed lack of attractive melodies with the outstanding qualities of his harmony and counterpoint.
It's not that he couldn't write pretty melodies (he often proved he could), but he preferred melodic material that's suitable for intense thematic development over themes that are only good for surface shine. That philosophy strongly ties him to Beethoven - but it also makes him a precursor to modernity, since the progression of his extremely dense harmony often takes the form of a "Klangfarbenmelodie" in the vein of Schönberg. And at some point in his career, the years 1905-1910, he tested the limits of tonality and his works were just as modern as those of Strauss, Mahler or even Schönberg. Labeling Reger as a conservative composer, a "Brahms without melodies", is completely without grounds.

As for the more accessible parts of his oeuvre - it's often said that he was at his best when he worked with other people's melodies, hence the popularity of the various variations cycles for piano or orchestra, or the choral fantasias for organ. I find that a rather one-sided approach. Reger can be attractive and accessible where you least expect him to be: in the slow movements of the 2 concertos (which are otherwise pretty hard nuts to crack), in the surprisingly lyrical piano music, and in the vocal works, which are often exquisitely beautiful.

My advice would be trying some works from his last years, 1911-1916. These tend to be less densely structured than those of the first decade of the 20th century, he "loosed up" a bit. The Clarinet Quintet has been mentioned, that's a great starting point. Then the late orchestral works, the last two string quartets and solo sonatas. Those alone offer hours of rewarding and often gorgeous music.


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## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

Some good advices here.

First tune of Reger I ever heard when I was still a little child: "Mariä Wiegenlied" (part of _Schlichte Weisen_, Op.76), sung by Caroline Kaart, on a Christmas album of my parents.
Good golly, that touched my (very) young heart.

Other vocal stuff I truly love: Acht geistliche Gesänge, Op. 138.

Christmas song: from 24:43 in this clip:






First motet of op. 138:


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## Chilham (Jun 18, 2020)

The most recommended works from my research:

Variations and Fugue on a Theme by JA Hiller
Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin
Piano Concerto in F Minor
Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in E Minor
A Romantic Suite
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart
Cello Suites Op. 131
8 Sacred Songs
Serenade in G, Op. 141a
Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Beethoven


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## Marc (Jun 15, 2007)

Oh, btw: organ works of Reger, experienced 'live', can be truly awesome.
(Preferably on a baroque organ, because mostly they sound less 'muddy' than a romantic organ, but that's a personal preference.)


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Marc said:


> First tune of Reger I ever heard when I was still a little child: "Mariä Wiegenlied" (part of _Schlichte Weisen_, Op.76), sung by Caroline Kaart, on a Christmas album of my parents.
> Good golly, that touched my (very) young heart.


And there we have it: undeniable proof that Reger could write a great melody, if he wanted!
A simple but very touching theme, the magic happens when the harmony suddenly shifts from F major to D major.








And in the second stanza, Reger instead of repeating the F - D modulation, surprisingly goes to D flat! Which gives the passage an almost outer-worldly tenderness.








Pure genius, this. And I didn't even mention the subtle canon (at "Hold ist dein lächeln") that replaces the simple accompaniment in the first stanza.
If Reger had only written this little song, he'd still be one of the great composers.


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## Highwayman (Jul 16, 2018)

Chilham said:


> The most recommended works from my research:
> 
> Variations and Fugue on a Theme by JA Hiller
> Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin
> ...


This post would be a very good start point (except the Piano Concerto maybe).


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## feierlich (3 mo ago)

His Orchesterlieder!









Maestro Gerd Albrecht was a major Reger reviver and Dieskau certainly gave a extraordinary interpretation (as he always did) in this Orfeo album.


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## ibrahim (Apr 29, 2017)

An entry about Max Reger is contained in _Lexicon of Musical Invective. _His letter to a critic who kept deriding him. "I am in the smallest room in my house. I have your review in front of me. Soon it will be behind me." 😁


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## Shoskofiev (5 mo ago)

There are two *Serenades for flute, violin and viola (namely Op. 77a and 141a) *which represent Reger in his most light-hearted and approachable. A good entry point to his output.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Shoskofiev said:


> There are two *Serenades for flute, violin and viola (namely Op. 77a and 141a) *which represent Reger in his most light-hearted and approachable. A good entry point to his output.


Yes, very much so. Both are closely modeled in a fiendishly clever way on Beethoven's Op. 25 Serenade for the same instruments. But you don't need to know that. As you say, they are both light-hearted and approachable, much like Beethoven's original Serenade, and stand on their own merits.


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