MAXimally fallen in love – Favourite pieces by Max Reger
MAXimally fallen in love – Favourite pieces by Max Reger
1.
What is your favorite piece by Max Reger? Friends of Reger's music give personal answers. Some are attracted to a certain sound, find themselves in the complex personality of Max Reger or have already played “their” work in an exam. A podcast series in cooperation with the Max-Reger-Institut and the Institute for Music Journalism at the Karlsruhe University of Music.
Ghost train ride that ends well
Among all of Reger's piano works that pianist Markus Becker has played, the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Johann Sebastian Bach op. 81 for piano stand out particularly for him.1.
Goosebumps out of a suitcase
Susanne Popp has been involved with Reger almost all her life. It was not easy for the former director of the Max Reger Institute and edition director of the Reger-Werkausgabe to decide on a heartfelt piece. The story about the Symphonic Prologue to a Tragedy op. 108 gives an insight into her work as a collector.1.
Peace at last
The composer Enjott Schneider feels very close to Max Reger and his music. He has also adapted Reger's Requiem op. 144b in a work of his own.1.
There I will find you
For Hermann Wilske, there is not a single weak piece by Reger. The President of the Landesmusikrats Baden-Württemberg has a special connection with the Fantasy and Fugue in D minor, op. 135b.1.
There I will find you
Even in her youth, the mezzo-soprano Frauke May-Jones counted Friedrich Hölderlin's An die Hoffnung among her favourite poems. This is not the only reason why she has intensively studied Reger's setting op. 124.1.
A real closing point
"Do something for Reger!" was the advice his former teacher gave him. Since then, the General Music Director of the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe Georg Fritzsch has not only performed the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart op.132 again and again.1.
Neighbours, not only in spirit
Reger understood the clarinet like hardly any other composer, says Jörg Widmann about the Clarinet Quintet in A major op. 146. For him, the work is not only "beautiful to kneel down", but was also a source of inspiration for his own clarinet quintet.1.
A good experience
Reger's Aus der Jugendzeit op. 17 reminds the pianist and Echo Klassik prize winner Yaara Tal of early childhood experiences with her piano teacher.1.
Atmosphere of the very special
As a student, Thomas Seedorf sang the difficult motet »Mein Odem ist schwach« op. 110 No. 1 in the choir. For the member of the board of trustees of the Max-Reger-Institute and editorial director of the Reger-Werkausgabe, the work is an original source of his understanding of Reger.1.
Discovery of the unconscious
For Bernhard Haas, the Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme in F-sharp Minor op. 73 are not only among Reger's richest works. The organist also discovers one of the composer's greatest historical achievements in this work.1.