Max Reger - Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue (Op. 127)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ส.ค. 2024
- Key: E minor
Dedication: Karl Straube
The work is structured in three sections: the introduction, a passacaglia with 26 variations that build in intensity towards the double fugue.
The organist David Goode wrote that the introduction begins with dense chromaticism and flourishing figuration. The passacaglia is based on a theme which uses eleven of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale.
The 26 variations are grouped in the sections: a first, intensifying speed and texture, a second as a meditative centre, and a third, again intensifying towards the fugue. He notes Reger's "effective control of pace and excitement".
The Canadian composer Healey Willan heard the work, played by his friend Dalton Baker. When Baker said "that such a work could only have been composed by a 'German philosophical mind'" Willan was challenged to write a composition of the same structure, completed in 1916.
Reger composed the work in 1913. He wrote the organ piece with the intent for it to be performed for organ concerts, rather than for church services, called "in grand style". Reger composed the work on a commission for the opening celebrations of a new concert hall in Breslau, the Jahrhunderthalle (Centennial Hall).
Reger revived organ concert music which had become unfashionable. Karl Straube was an organist and a friend, able to play technically difficult music, and to influence the composition (the markings for expression are believed to have been influenced by him).
The first performance happened in Breslau on 24 September 1913, where Straube played.
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger, commonly known as Max Reger, was born in Germany in 1873.
He started composing chamber music and lieder from a young age, then he became a concert pianist and a teacher and wrote for piano and organ.
In 1901 he moved to Munich, where is fame started rising, and in 1902 he married Elsa von Bercken and was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, since she was a divorced Protestant.
Thanks to his friendship with Karl Straube, he directed the Leipzig University Church and taught at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig in 1907-1908.
In 1911 he became Music director at the court of Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen - position he held until 1914, when he suffered a breakdown due to his problems there.
He moved with the family to Jena, commuting once a week to Leipzig for teaching.
Reger died of heart attack while in Leipzig in 1916.
Performer: Ludger Lohmann
Original audio: • Introduction, Passacag...
Score: imslp.org/wiki...)
Max Reger was both a demented composer and a genius! He created a world that we have come to love!
Great organ work full of harmonic prowess and mysticism…
Wonderful! I'm not sure if it's possible to love this piece more than I do!
Reger's organ works are something else, thanks for the upload.
Un monument de la conjugaison du baroque et du romantisme. L'orgue est poussé à ses extrémités expressives toujours avec beaucoup de subtilité.
Monstrous performance.
This is the great organ by organbuilder "Link" in Giengen an der Brenz, Germany. It has 3 manuals, 51 registers and pneumatic action. There is a great demonstration on TH-cam made by Professor Bossert.
That's interesting, I'll definitely have a look!
Why does this feel like trying to listen to a big symphony, but you're a fish stuck in a water bowl outside the performance hall
Gothic and clumsy, like he is struggling music in search of the exile. Crazy and clear message to the listeners.
Herrlich!!!
Thank you, SV, for sharing this wonderful performance by *Ludger Lohmann* . Also for the score and interesting notes.
I recall liking three of the 26 variations.
Who would bother to learn this too long work? But absolutely love Reger's fugue and started learning it.
Is Ludger Lohmann related to Heinz Lohmann?
Yes, Reger surely isn't a light composer that you listen in background, but that doesn't mean his music is bad!
I don't know about the two Lohmann, I haven't found much about their respective families.
@@SV_ScoreVideos Amazing that anyone would go to the trouble of learning this entire work. Bravo, *Ludger Lohmann* ! Would take me years. (Am still working on the Maxnificent fugue.)
Would this performance sound better than the first performance by Karl Straube.cause this orgahas bright mixtures and the Jahrhunderthalle organ did not? Or am I wrong abouthat? Thank you.
Yes, it could be. Good luck with the Fugue!
I love learning ALL of REger's works.
Heinz is the father of Ludger.
toll
Leider doch einiges viel zu schnell gespielt. Manches in Passacaglia und Fuge verschwimmt zu einem undurchdringlichen Klangbrei, sodass man von Regers Harmonien nichts mehr versteht. Ich hätte mir auch mehr flexibles Rubato gewünscht anstatt - besonders in der Fuge - das Tempo einfach durchzuziehen. Schade…