On May 11, 1916, Max Reger was found dead in a Leipzig hotel room at only 43 years old. At the time, he was a celebrated composer, regarded by many as the leading living German composer alongside Richard Strauss. Today the situation is different: apart from among organists, he is almost forgotten, and his name rarely appears on concert programs. Even if most musicians today show little interest in Reger, one consolation is that his music is still well represented on recordings.
Born in Bavaria, Reger stood firmly in the German tradition that stretched from Bach and Beethoven to Brahms. In his own time, concert audiences probably had a stronger cultural grasp of his musical language than listeners do now. Today he is often portrayed as a dry theorist, able to write the most complex fugues imaginable, but whose music leaves the heart untouched. That view is rather one-sided. His best works have many qualities, and there is also a sensual side to them. We should remember that he was a contemporary of both Strauss and Mahler, even if Reger’s outlook was more conservative than theirs. Interestingly, Arnold Schoenberg—the most radical of all his contemporaries—was the one who valued Reger the most, calling him the last great German master.
Reger was a large, heavy man. Ten beers a day was not unusual for him, along with heavy German food. It is no surprise that he did not live to see fifty. In taverns and other social settings he often displayed a sharp and earthy humor. To a critic who had torn apart one of his works, he once wrote: “I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review in front of me. Soon it will be behind me.”
Despite his short life, his career was highly successful. He was active as a composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and academic (professor at the Leipzig Conservatory). He also toured widely in Europe to promote his music. At the same time, he composed with almost manic intensity, leaving behind a remarkably large body of work in nearly every genre except opera.
Why, then, should we still devote attention to Reger today? Some of my favorite works are in his orchestral output, where he often combines contrapuntal mastery with expressive sensitivity. In the Romantic Suite, Ballet Suite, and the four Tone Poems after Böcklin, mood and atmosphere clearly take precedence over theory. In the last of these, he creates an almost impressionistic sound world with wonderfully sensual orchestral writing.
His technical brilliance shows most impressively in the three orchestral variation sets on themes by Mozart, Beethoven, and Hiller—music of remarkable refinement and inventiveness. His concertos for piano and violin have also begun to attract more attention on record in recent years. Both are conceived on a grand symphonic scale and are extremely long, which may explain their absence from concert halls. Another work worth hearing more often is the Symphonic Prologue, a darkly colored, brooding piece.
Reger also wrote a large amount of chamber music, with the piano often featured in sonatas, trios, and quartets alongside other instruments. He produced string trios, quartets, and much else besides. In these smaller forms he often shows his most sympathetic side: the intimacy brings out a concentration and melancholy that shine through, as in the elegiac Clarinet Quintet, perhaps his most frequently recorded piece. One should also not miss his gothic-sounding choral-orchestral works such as Requiem, Die Weihe der Nacht, and Gesang der Verklärten.
Much more could be said about Reger: his importance for the development of organ music, and the dedication of many colleagues who continued to perform his works for decades. Today, however, his music is rarely heard in concert halls. It is hard to imagine him experiencing a revival like Zemlinsky, Korngold, or Schreker in recent years. Reger will probably always remain a composer for the few. There is nothing glamorous about him; his music seldom erupts in ecstasy. Yet behind the rhetoric of his fugues beats a heart capable of warmth, humor, and at times even the deepest of emotions.
Recommended Recordings
