This CD will come as
a revelation to anyone who regards Reger
simply as a composer of dense, chromatic
and complex music. I hadn’t come across
any of these pieces before and I must
say I have found this a delightful disc.
In his useful notes
Alexander Becker tells us that the two
sets, Sieben geistliche Volkslieder
and Zwölf deutsche geistliche
Gesänge are companion works
in many respects though the latter set
features more adventurous and demanding
part-writing. Reger wrote of them that
these pieces would be "a capella
setting(s), without chromaticism, (or)
much use of modal writing." He
added "I enjoy this ‘self-chastisement’
very much."
It seems to me that
Reger achieves a most successful balance
between simplicity of utterance and
saying something new about these traditional
melodies. Thus, for example, in the
Sieben geistliche Volkslieder
the setting of O Jesulein suss (track
6) offers just that bit more harmonic
richness than Bach’s immortal harmonisation,
yet Reger’s version falls just as sympathetically
and naturally on the ear. Earlier in
the same set the piece from which the
CD takes is title, Es sungen drei
Engel is a charming, innocent piece.
The larger set of Zwölf
deutsche geistliche Gesänge follows
the church’s year to some extent. The
first five are for Advent and Christmas,
the next three cover the period from
New Year to Easter. The remainder are
settings of texts dealing with the themes
of death and resurrection. Unfortunately,
though the notes are supplied in English,
French and German, only the German words
are provided; so for non-German speakers
there is something of a handicap to
appreciation of any of the songs on
the disc. These twelve songs are set
in between five and eight parts whereas
the companion collection is for SATB
choir. The set of three pieces Op. 79g
is for SSA voices. I haven’t had access
to any scores but even when the writing
expands to the full eight parts it seems
to me that Reger keeps the textures
clear and does not suffocate the essentially
simple basic melodic material.
Mind you, the credit
for this clarity must be shared between
Reger on the one hand and Hans-Christoph
Rademann and his choir on the other.
The singing on display here is absolutely
first rate. I can’t fault the choir
on any aspect whatsoever. The balance
is superb, dynamic control and contrast
are most impressive, tuning is flawless
so far as I can tell (I don’t have perfect
pitch) and the ensemble is crisp and
accurate. Rademann has clearly prepared
his singers excellently and this is
as fine an example of choral singing
as I’ve heard in a long time. The engineers
deserve credit too for reproducing the
choir in clear, natural sound.
This wouldn’t be a
disc to listen to all at once, I think.
That said, I’ve enjoyed it enormously.
It’s a charming and delightful collection,
expertly performed. Since nearly half
the items here have associations with
the Christmas season this is a particularly
appropriate time to recommend it, which
I do with great enthusiasm.
John Quinn
Max
REGER (1873-1916) 
NDR Chor Hamburg/Hans-Christoph Rademann 
