Search - Reger, Grau :: Variations & Fugues

Grand Piano from Rigourous Reger...

Sébastien Melmoth | Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS | 07/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

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Max Reger (1873-1916) is an interesting musicological character.

He inhereted the great Germanic tradition of music, viz. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms; and yet he flourished during a period of great transition while he absorbed the most innovative explorations in harmony of his time--i.e., Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, and Strauss.



Reger died suddenly aged only 42 years during the Great War--(doubtless he had high blood-pressure, drank, smoked, consumed too rich a diet, and worked too much), and so he is in no way tainted in the implications of the later regime as some German artists are, (e.g. Strauss and Pfitzner); nor could he possibly have been marginalized as "Degenerate" like so many were--(for example, Zemlinsky and Schreker et alii).



Schönberg esteemed Reger's artisitc talent with Debussy's: Reger developed his own uniquely individual style for the expression of a rich artistic ethos.



In summation, the content of Reger's art reflects a thorough synthesis of the rich harmonic innovations of Wagner, Brahms, and Mahler, subornidated within firmly classical/romantic forms and genres from passacalia, fugue, and variation to the string quartet, piano trio, violin sonata, cello sonata, and piano quartet--forms Brahms too especially favored.

And so, one may consider Reger an artist of spatio-temporally slightly more advanced Brahms.



This disc features two grand works--each almost half an hour in performance time--in another genre Brahms favored: the piano duet--(that is, two pianos).

These are extremely big, rich concert pieces of the Belle Époque.



In the tradition of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms, the forms feature theme, variations--(passacalia being another variation form)--and fugue. The themes are chosen to honor Reger's masters: the last of Beethoven's eleven Bagatells Op. 119; and the famous andante grazioso (movement I) from Mozart's beautiful A-major piano Sonata K. 331.

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Previously issued on the now out of print:

Reger: Complete Works for 2 Pianos

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Reger: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of J. S. Bach

Reger: Cello Sonatas

Reger: The String Quartets; Clarinet Quintet

Max Reger: Sonatas for Violin & Piano Op. 122 & Op. 139

Reger: Bach Variations; Piano Concerto No.1 [Germany]

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Beethoven: Bagatelles, Opp. 33 & 126

The Mozart Piano Sonatas, Vol. 4

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