Max Reger (1873-1916)
Organ Works Volume 2
Introduction,
Passacaglia and Fugue in E minor, Op. 127
Nine Organ Pieces, Op.
129; Choralvorspiele, Op. 135a, Nos. 1-10
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was born in Bavaria in 1873 and
died in Leipzig, at the age of 43, in 1916. Although he has been described
recently as a musical descendant of Brahms, in his own time, he was often
criticized as a subversive revolutionary. In his rôles as teacher, performer,
conductor and composer, Reger always achieved great professional success, and,
as a composer of organ music, he is considered the most important German
composer since Bach.
The monumental Introduction, Passacaglia und Fugue in E minor,
Op. 127, was written during April and May, 1913 to fulfill a request from the
city of Breslau. Originally the capital of Silesia in the twelfth century,
Breslau was under Habsburg, and then Prussian rule, until passing to Poland in
the aftermath of World War II. It is now known as Wroclaw. The year 1913 saw
the completion of Breslau's Jahrhunderthalle, built to commemorate the
centennial of the anti-Napoleonic revolt. The organ, built for this hall by the
firm of Wilhelm Sauer of Frankfurt/Oder, was one of the largest instruments in
the world with 15,000 pipes and 200 stops, spread over five manuals. Reger's
commission specified a large work for organ and orchestra, much like the Festliches
Praeludium, Op. 61, by his friend Richard Strauss (also written in 1913 for
the inauguration of the enormous Rieger organ in the Vienna Konzerthaus).
Reger's involvement with other orchestral projects at this time, however, most
notably, the Böcklin Suite, Op. 128, and the Ballet-Suite,
Op. 130, may have dictated the simplification of these requirements, and the
resulting work for organ alone. There was an interval of eight years between
Op. 127, in 1913, and his last major organ work, the Second Suite in G
Minor, Op. 92, in 1905. As with many of Reger's previous organ pieces, Op. 127
was written for, and dedicated to, Karl Straube (1873-1950). Like Reger,
Straube had been a pupil of Hugo Riemann in Wiesbaden. From the moment of his
first meeting with Reger in 1898, Straube became a staunch advocate of the
composer's music, his musical advisor, and his closest friend. Straube served
as organist at the Willibrordi-Kirche in Wesel from 1897 to 1903, and then took
the prestigious position of organist, and later Kantor of the Thomaskirche in
Leipzig. He also became an organ teacher at the Leipzig Conservatory in 1907.
Reger considered Karl Straube to be the greatest organist in Germany and by far
the best interpreter of his organ works. Several impressive concerts were
planned for the opening celebrations of the Breslau hall, including an all-Bach
organ recital by Straube, and a full-scale performance of the massive Symphony
No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") by Gustav Mahler. On 24th
September, 1913, Straube gave a recital, which featured the first performance
of Reger's Op. 127, as part of a programme which included works by Byrd,
Banchieri, Zipoli, Liszt, Buxtehude, Pachelbel and Franck Critical reaction to
the première was mixed. While certain critics found the work strange and highly
dissonant, others were impressed by Reger's mature style, with his effortless
command of strict counterpoint, and his "wild" exploratory harmonies.
Everyone complained about the work's excessive length. (If contemporary
accounts are correct, Straube's performance required forty minutes!)
The Introduction, Passacaglia und Fugue, Op. 127, opens
with a massive, chordal flourish, which introduces the work's principal
unifying motif: a descending chromatic scale. Through a seemingly endless
process of motivic transformation and sequential repetition, this motif is
identifiable in nearly every bar that follows. In addition to small-scale
motivic detail, there is a large-scale progression from the rhapsodic excesses
of the five-page Introduction, with its passionate outbursts and
textural shifts, to the intellectual rigors of an overpowering, sixteen-page
double-fugue. Between these extremes of musical structure, stands the passacaglia
– a clear, precise form (26 variations, each exactly eight bars long), yet
not entirely strict.
The set of Nine Organ Pieces, Op. 129, seem to have been written
as an act of recreation, during a much needed vacation at Kolberg an der
Ostsee, at the end of summer, 1913. At this time, the organ was only peripheral
to Reger's varied, and seemingly perpetual, professional activities. He still
retained his professorship in composition at the Leipzig Conservatory,
travelling there often to meet with students. In 1911, he became Hofkapellmeister
to Duke Georg in Meiningen, which involved programme planning and
exhausting concert tours with the excellent court orchestra. His recital
schedule took what little time was left. Reger played or conducted in 106
concerts during the 1912/13 season alone. It is all the more incredible that he
found the energy to produce several substantial orchestral works, including the
Konzert im Alten Stil, Op. 123, the Römiseher Triumphgesaug, Op.
126, and the Ballet-Suite, Op. 130.
Op. 129 bears a dedication to the composer's close friend Hans von
Ohlendorff, himself an organist and the guardian of Reger's two adopted
daughters. In this set, the colossal Regerian style is stripped bare to show
the essential creative act of composition in miniature. The Toccata (No.
1 – Grave, in D minor), merely twenty-five bars long, is an
improvisatory sketch based on contrasting motifs that vaguely recall the Introduction
to Op. 127. Less noteworthy is the Fugue (No. 2 – Molto
sostenuto), which suffers from lack of rhythmic contrasts and incessant
chromaticism. The subject appears briefly in inversion, and is combined briefly
with a secondary subject. Strict imitation prevails in the Kanon (No. 3 –
Poco sostenuto, in E), where an intricate melody in the right hand follows
itself one octave lower, and one half beat later in the left. A lowest voice is
reserved for the pedals, reminiscent of the organ trio sonatas of J.S. Bach. In
the lovely Melodia (No. 4 – Larghetto, in B flat), the strictures
of counterpoint are relaxed, forming a compact, charming homophonic masterpiece
in simple ABA form. The Capriccio (No. 5 – Poco vivace, in G
minor) unfolds in perpetual motion. Single-voice, broken chord figures
are tossed back and forth from one manual to another with fearless abandon,
while an asymmetrical and rather ominous tune makes its appearance in longer
note values in the bass. While it is tempting to suggest works by Widor or
Vierne as possible models here, certain similar piano pieces by Schumann are
much closer to Reger's musical heritage. The clever Basso ostinato (No.
6 – Molto sostenuto, in G minor), presents a completely new treatment of
its tiny two-measure theme every two bars. A broad arch-form, which emerges
over the course of forty-two bars, is clearly defined in terms of rhythm,
texture, harmonic complexity, and dynamics. Following a very unsettled Intermezzo
(No. 7, in F minor – Adagio), which alternates between 3 and 4 beats
per bar with constant changes of timbre between three manuals, there comes a
tidy little Praeludium (No. 8 – Quasi grave) and Fuge (No.
9 – Grave, both in D minor). The Praeludium begins with motoric,
string-like, broken-chord figures, and ends with a dramatic cadence in B major.
In contrast, the little Fugue unfolds very quietly, never growing beyond
the simple quaver and crochet rhythms of it, plaintive subject.
In September 1914, Reger turned his attention to liturgical music with
his Op. 135a: Thirty Little Chorale Preludes (on the most common
chorales). Although raised a Catholic, Reger became acquainted with Protestant
chorales as a student, and returned to them often as a source of inspiration.
In a letter to Straube, he described this set as "very, very easy",
and "childishly simple". In contrast to the enormous chorale-based
fantasias written as concert works, beginning with Op. 27 (Ein teste Burg) in
1898, these short, elegant settings in four or five parts are intended for
practical use by church organists. In the first ten chorales, the unadorned
tunes appear in the soprano voice in all but No. 5 (Ein feste Burg ist unser
Gott), where it sounds in the bass, played by the pedals. In Nos. 3 (Alles
ist an Gottes Segen), 4 (Aus tiefer Not), 6 (Eins ist
not!), 8 (Es ist gewißlich an der Zeit) and 9 (Freu dieh sehr), simple
echo effects are achieved through the use of alternating registrations and
keyboards. In some instances, the pedal line disappears and is marked ad
libitum.
Ludger Lohmann
The German organist Ludger Lohmann was born in Herne in 1954 and
established his international reputation with triumph in a number of important
organ competitions, among them the Munich ARD Competition in 1979 and the Grand
Prix de Chartres in 1982. His study of problems of articulation in the keyboard
music of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries has become a standard work and
he has since extended his interests to cover matters of German romantic organ
performance practice. He is involved as a senior researcher with the projects
of the Organ Art Centre of the University of Gothenburg. At the Cologne
Musikhochschule he was a pupil of Wolfgang Stockmeier and Hugo Rug, before
further important study with Anton Heiller in Vienna and Marie-Claire Alain in
Paris. After teaching for several years at the Cologne Musikhochschule,
embarking on this while still a student, Ludger Lohmann was appointed Professor
of Organ at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart in 1983, at the same time
accepting the appointment of principal organist at Stuttgart Catholic
Cathedral. In 1989 he served as guest professor at the University of Hartford
in Connecticut. His recordings span the whole organ repertoire, from early
music to work, by contemporary composers, and he enjoys a world-wide reputation
as a recitalist and teacher, serving as a frequent member of juries for
international organ competitions.