This is a convenient
and compact way of exploring much of
Reger’s orchestral music. In fact there
are no other comparable single box Reger
collections. Of course single label
collections are not necessarily the
best way of approaching a composer.
Here though the results are recommendable;
the more so at bargain price.
Reger connoisseurs
are likely to recommend a more targeted
approach and some will take exception
to the analogue sound which is nevertheless
perfectly healthy and clear. Picking
and choosing amongst the catalogues
there is a fine two CD collection of
radio recordings conducted by Scherchen
on CPO. The Böcklin Pictures
and Hiller Variations are
on a highly commended Chandos from Järvi
and the Concertgebouw. There are a couple
of Segerstam discs on Bis and these
should be full of character.
The only enterprise
comparable to the Edel box is the series
of eight Koch International CDs from
the Bamberg orchestra and Horst Stein.
These CDs have now been deleted and
were only ever issued individually.
The recordings were more up to date
although even then they compared with
the best FM rather than the sort of
stunning studio sound Stein had been
accorded when recording Sibelius with
Decca in the 1970s. Perhaps Koch will
now think of reissuing those recordings
in a bargain box.
The conductor line-up
for Edel reads like a roll-call of the
DDR’s major talent with the young Blomstedt
probably the best known. Konwitschny
is a golden era figure and his recordings
are much sought after. Otherwise we
have conductors whose recordings are
now only gradually making a distinctive
reputation for them: Rögner, Suitner
and Bongartz. Bongartz in particular
emerges from this experience with real
merit.
Reger was not short
of celebrity premieres for his orchestral
works. The Ballet Suite was premiered
by Josef Stransky in Bremen which is
where Felix Mottl directed the Sinfonietta’s
premiere in 1905. Ferdinand Löwe
gave the Vienna premiere of the Beethoven
Variations. Fritz Steinbach presided
over the first performance of the Hiller
in Köln. Julius Buths gave
the Böcklin Poems in Essen
in 1913. The Violin Concerto’s first
outing was a very prestigious affair
with Henri Marteau as soloist and Nikisch
conducting - Leipzig, 1908. Nikisch
too was the conductor for the Piano
Concerto in 1910 when the soloist was
Frieda Kwast-Hodapp. Nikisch was the
dedicatee of the Symphonic Prolog
but the premiere was directed by
Fritz Steinbach in Köln in 1909.
These Edel recordings
are not in the first flush of youth.
The earliest was made in 1963; the latest
in 1984 just one year after the launch
of the compact disc. They all derive
from Berlin Classics and would first
have been issued on LP in the then German
Democratic Republic. They are however
very good indeed. I was surprised how
excellent the 1963 Konwitschny recording
sounded.
We are told in the
liner note that the Ballet Suite
was hardly what one expected
from Reger. In fact the first of the
six movements is pretty much exactly
what I would have expected - at least
at first: that signature density and
heaviness of pace. The deliciously alive
Harlequin finds its parallels
in the Böcklin Poems’ At
play in the Waves. The valse
d’amour is sumptuously Straussian
- and is very uncharacteristic of Reger.
As if to atone for these ‘sins’ Reger
starts the Finale in typically
busy fashion.
The suite stands alone.
It was not part of a larger ballet and
although it may have been danced it
was not written to be choreographed
and staged. The movement titles link
the music with the Commedia dell’arte.
The stories of Pantalon and Colombine
and of Pierrot and Pierrette were popular
at the time - witness the contemporaneous
works of Holbrooke, Bantock and others.
By the way was the further movement,
Pantalon, ever completed and
if so has it survived?
The op. 123 Concerto
in the Olden Style is in three
movements and apes the baroque. Neo-classical?
Yes, but it clothes its athleticism
in heavy fabrics; try the start of the
first and last movements. Nevertheless
Reger does keep in touch with the work’s
roots through soloistic writing. The
Largo is affecting and is beautifully
done by Suitner and his Berlin orchestra.
All credit to the Edel team for the
long pause between the end of the Concerto
and the start of the Beethoven
Variations. As with the Mozart
set Reger preserves the Beethovenian
accent throughout although it is amongst
his more ponderous works. Again perhaps
if Bongartz had been at the helm things
might have been even better although
in fairness Suitner is excellent in
the other two pieces. Even so the Variations
end with one of those rigid fugues that
cast a pall every time Reger gives in
to canonic temptation.
Despite being the oldest
recording here Konwitschny’s Hiller
Variations has plenty of depth
and gripping impact. Again this is delicate
writing; witness the blessedly prominent
presence of the harp in the first two
variations. Elsewhere Reger is drawn
back to those iron-hobnails (trs. 5
and 7). An almost Gallic tenderness
(Masques et Bergamasques and
Danses Sacrés et Danses Profanes)
is revealed in a lovingly shaped Andante
sostenuto. But my how he loves his
fugues! The final fugal movement runs
to just short of ten minutes.
Heinz Bongartz (1894-1978)
conducts the Dresdner Philharmonie on
CDs 3 and 4. He has a good feeling for
forward movement and might well have
been a better choice than the sometimes
becalmed Rögner for the Symphonic
Prolog and the Romantic Suite.
He was also very well treated by the
engineers in 1973. The sound is vivid
- full of impact and only vulnerable
in the edginess of the massed violins.
The horns in the first movement are
gloriously rendered. Reger planned this
work as a serenade in the manner of
Brahms’ two examples. It is discursive
and while it has Brahms’ manner and
weightiness of texture it looks far
less to the ominous First Symphony and
more to the sunnier episodes in the
Second. Was Reger intimidated by the
Symphony? We have a 50 minute Symphonic
Prologue in a single movement and
a Sinfonietta that is just as
long but this time in four movements.
Standing out in this
company are the two scenas for alto
and orchestra. These are substantial
pieces each running just over eleven
minutes. The first sets Hölderlin’s
An die Hoffnung in sumptuous
style although for a song about hope
this is remarkably mournful stuff. Hymnus
der Liebe takes a poem by Ludwig
Jacobowski. Reger sets it as if against
the backdrop of an ominous night sky
with Gothic clouds afloat. This continuum
is relieved by the uncoiling of slowly
coaxed climaxes. There is some operatic
drama at 7:40.
Bongartz delivers an
excellent Mozart Variations which
is full of bubbling life and some delightful
delicacy. Again it is superbly recorded
as also are the Böcklin Tone
Poems op. 128. The second movement
Vivace (At play in the Waves)
draws on Berlioz’s spindrift lightness
of touch. The Isle of the Dead is
suitably funereal and with a strongly
sustained darkened atmosphere. It was
written four years after Rachmaninov’s
own Isle of the Dead. The final
Bacchanal does not have the sprightly
airiness of Saint-Saëns. Instead
this is a very Teutonic celebration:
all knightly tabards, brimming steins
and heavy-footed dances.
The Piano Concerto
is a work of strenuously muscular
pianism and owes unashamed tribute to
the First Piano Concerto of Brahms,
a composer he held in high esteem. It
has attracted few champions and Webersinke
joins only Gerhard Oppitz and Peter
Serkin in tackling the work in the studio.
The second movement starts in turmoil
but soon finds its pellucid metier.
Listen to the calming liquid dreaminess
at 10.54. It’s not short at 41:45 but
it’s short beside the almost hour long
Violin Concerto which has had
just as few champions on record. I know
of only three recordings: Edith Peinemann
(Vox LP?) who was persuaded to record
the piece by Rudolf Serkin; Walter Forchert
(a Koch CD that I hope to review eventually)
and the present recording. I heard the
Peinemann at least fifteen years ago.
I have never heard the Forchert although
I know his utterly passionate approach
to Reger from his recording of the Reger
Symphonic Rhapsody and Suite (both for
violin and orchestra and both on Koch
Schwann 3-1498-2 H1). Forchert will
be worth hearing. Scherzer is nevertheless
very convincing and his tone and the
intensity of the music-making present
the concerto in a very strong light.
It is a work of lyrical autumnal blaze,
a grand landscape but with gentle contours.
There are quite a few passages that
are decidedly Elgarian - listen to the
grandeur of the end of the first movement.
Reger saw the Violin Concerto as a natural
continuation of the ‘grand tradition’
in the line of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.
I wondered if my attention would wander
but was held by the quality of Scherzer’s
music-making. His concentration, passion
and ability to articulate a long golden
spinning line. Some may take exception
to Scherzer’s clearly audible intakes
of breath at his first entry although
I did not notice them later. The work
offers little violinistic display although
there are some showy moments in the
cadenza at the end of the first movement.
After the dreamy Largo comes the Finale
with some lighter-hearted moments. However
the sense of autumnal passion arches
over everything.
Rögner (b. 1929)
was born in Leipzig and recorded extensively
for Eterna. The Symphonic Prelude
is a brooding work which moves
in languid paragraphs between tenacious
Brahmsian tragedy and impressionistic
tension. Rögner conveys the languor
of the piece although I am sure more
could have been made of the tortured
tragedy. It is here recorded in a version
cut down by the composer from its original
fifty minutes. One of these days I hope
we will be allowed to hear the full
version. On the same disc comes A
Romantic Suite ‘after poems
by Eichendorff’; these are printed in
the booklet in German only. Rögner
again revels in the languid so that
even the elfin play of the Scherzo Vivace
has the slow honey of sleep in its joints.
Once again the Finale with its diaphanous
dreamy textures suggests Griffes’ White
Peacock and Pleasure Dome.
There are some undeniably telling moments
in this music as when the horns echo
softly back and forth in the Finale.
The booklet notes by
Ulf Brenken give us the essentials about
the music although I would have liked
to have had precise recording dates
and locations.
The rigid board wallet
used by Edel is now a regular visitor
to the collector’s shelving. It takes
up only 2.5cm of precious space yet
contains seven CDs each in its own stiff
card sleeve.
Heartfelt music-making
across these warm-hearted and sometimes
languorous works. There’s even some
impressionistic influence that may yet
surprise you if you have been influenced
by the usual Reger caricature. Of course
he also runs true to accustomed form
when succumbing to the fugue or the
ponderously thudded dance. Irresistible
and more often than not an antidote
to ‘received wisdom’.
Rob Barnett
Note: Reger's Symphonic Prologue to a Tragedy is indeed recorded in a abridged version, but it is not true that it is shortened from 50 to actually 26 minutes. The optional cut, indicated by Reger himself in the printed full score, runs to some 7 minutes. Unabridged recordings are available from Gerd Albrecht (Koch) and Leif Segerstam (BIS), both playing about 34 minutes. Florian
Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin/Heinz
Rögner 
