Search - Johann Sebastian Bach, Max Reger, Dennis Russell Davies :: Johann Sebastian Bach Arranged by Max Reger

Fascinating Window on the Past

T. Beers | Arlington, Virginia United States | 05/10/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Max Reger (1873-1916) venerated Bach, and Reger's own music offers a fascinating take on how a late Romantic sensibility came to creative terms with the music of the High Baroque. But Reger was also a first-rate pianist and a conductor of note who performed Bach often, usually in his own arrangements. This disc offers Bach orchestral music either transcribed by Reger or edited by him for performances led almost a hundred years ago. The music is fascinating: the G Minor Suite is a compendium of various movements and sections of movements from Bach's keyboard music; the B Minor Suite is Bach's own, as edited and "voiced" by Reger for performance; the magnificent aria a transcription for (modest) string orchestra. In spite of the fact that this is, by definition, non-authentic Bach, most listeners will be surprised by the prevailing lightness of texture. Reger clearly understood that Bach performed in an ordinary 19th century style would disappear in the clotted masses of orchestral sound and took pains to avoid any such debacle. The result is music of real charm and surprising grace that offers a fascinating glimpse of how Bach was performed - by a first rate intelligence - at the turn of the last century. Dennis Russell Davies draws first-rate performances from the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and MGD provides really magnificent engineering. A delightful disc that is more than just a curio!"