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 af