Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901)
Organ Works, Volume 2

The life, times, and opus of Joseph Gabriel Rheinberger (1839-1901) reflect an almost Hegelian continuum of thesis and antithesis yielding an artistic synthesis. He was, at once, conservative and reformer, circumscribed and famous, mildly anachronistic and expressive of his time. Today, we know him primarily as a composer of organ music, though his compositions address virtually all musical media of his century. Few of us are familiar with his romantic opera The Seven Ravens, or the Florentine Symphony, yet he understood the voice very well and was recognised as a skilled conductor.

Unhappily, Rheinberger's organ sonatas have not enjoyed unbroken prominence in recitals, standing stylistically between Mendelssohn and Brahms on one hand and Max Reger on the other. Nonetheless, Reger unhesitatingly dedicated the virtuosic, massive and contrapuntally intricate Fantasy and