Reger: Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Bach, Op.81 (Schiff)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- Reger's Op.81 Variations on Bach's Cantata No.128, Auf Christi Himmelfahrt Allein, are a remarkable combination of rigour and variety. The counterpoint is bedazzling, the harmony feels both titanic and open-ended (beguiling, even), and the range of textures deployed is pretty extraordinary. In this huge jungle it's very easy for the calm, almost diminutive theme to get lost, but Schiff is extremely good at keeping it aurally foregrounded. You get the sense that it's a very small rudder guiding a very big ship: the ship wants to go its own way, dragged by the undertow of its own contrapuntal logic, and the theme has to work hard to make it go where it has to. In any case, this is a wonderful (live) performance. The dense textures are parsed to perfection (the slower-than usual tempi help, and I don't mind them), the climaxes carefully prepared, and the sense of menace and playfulness in Vars.5, 8, 10, and 13 is perfectly captured.
00:00 - Theme, Andante
01:58 - Variation 1, L'istesso tempo
03:43 - Variation 2, Sempre espressivo ed assai legato
05:13 - Variation 3, Grave assai
08:43 - Variation 4, Vivace
09:52 - Variation 5, Vivace
11:26 - Variation 6, Allegro moderato
13:00 - Variation 7, Adagio
15:00 - Variation 8, Vivace
16:13 - Variation 9, Grave e sempre molto espressivo
18:54 - Variation 10, Poco vivace
19:54 - Variation 11, Allegro agiato
20:58 - Variation 12, Andante sostenuto
23:18 - Variation 13, Vivace
24:07 - Variation 14, Con moto
25:52 - Fugue
Great upload, thanks Ashish
same
Out of nowhere I ask you, could you put out Carl Maria von Weber's piano sonatas. They're rather unknown gems.
the number of times I've listened to this recording... its indescribable. probably the single most monumental ending of a piano piece in my opinion. the build up of the fugue is incredible. hats off to all Bach, reger and schiff.
Glen Gould was flashy, impressive. But Andras Schiff was like the Silent Revolution.
CP-Enthusiast, I invite you to take a gander at my work here concerting key-choice, and the cognition behind "note colorings."
Your, _Acoustic Rabbit Hole_
it is unimaginable to be able to compose this but also to be able to play it. Reger must have had an enormously endless mind...
He composed the Fugue to the Hiller Variations op.100 during a Trainride in a single Day!
In my humble opinion, this is a masterwork that stands alongside Bach’s ‘Goldberg Variations’, Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli Variations’ and Brahms’ ‘Handel Variations’ in terms of sheer craftsmanship, depth and inventiveness.
Schiff and Reger become one with this work. Never has a gifted pianist been made for such a tremendous composer.
The theme is even so complex and hard to play...
Reger: " *If you buy 88 keys, you better use all of them.* "
Stolen from Liszt 😂😜
@@kawingng1600 Stolen from ROSSEAU 😳😳😳
@Rexy no IT STOLEN FROM ROSSOU 😡😡😡😡
@@stacia6678 😡ROSSOU KING
@@segmentsAndCurves Baron king 😡
Reger is a tremendously underappreciated composer, and for me his piano output is far more varied and representative, altough lesser known, than the organ works. The box with the complete piano works played (quite wonderfully) by Markus Becker is one of the things I treasure the most in my collection.
He has a couple of lovely works for viola that you should check out too!
Emiliano I completely agree. Reger's piano works are on the same level as his magnificent organ music, but sadly underperformed and underrated. As far as I know are the Schiff and the Hamelin recordings the only available renditions of the opus 81by living famous pianists.
Emiliano Carissimo Emiliano, non mi sorprende la tua passione per Reger, segue in un certo senso il tuo personale spiccatissimo gusto per la polifonia, per la commistione stilistica, per il gusto ,anche ,dell' ironia ( ovviamente mi riferisco più ad altri lavori di Reger, nel genere del pezzo breve)
Really do i admire complete works by Markus Becker
@@dickeyjung I like his Reger interpretation too. As far as I know is his box the only rendition of Reger's complete works for piano solo.
A peak of piano literature. Nothing less. Cannot stop coming back to it. Difficult to play (understatement). Giant work.
Argiris Vlastos Very true, I completely concur with your statement. IMHO the greatest set of variations for piano since the Diabelli-V.
it is perhaps one of the most difficult solo piano piece ever written, especially if the soloist wants to make the theme clear throughout the piece.
@@zewensenpai grandes etudes transcendentes d'apres de paganini s136 no 4 is harder.
Wow a live performance! Schiff really is among the greatest.
Gotta love our boy Schiff
18:54 (Variation 10) is my favorite. It's so mysterious, and I absolutely love it. My only criticism of this variation is that it's too short. Thank you for introducing me to Max Reger. He's far too underrated and overshadowed.
REGER was a madman! WOW!! what a virtuosic composition! I hope Andras soaked his hands in soothing water after this! I am astounded!
porque no escrives en castillano ?
@@pascalpelat5824 Not everybody speaks Spanish. Maybe his username is Spanish (I don't know) but that doesn't mean anything..
I can only marvel at this work. Great composition! And also great rendition by Andras Schiff.
This is my first time learning of this piece and composer. Oh my word what a performance and composition. Astounding!
The 13th variation is a wonderful reimagining of Bach's harmonies in Reger's trademark humoreske style, a genre which proliferates his other piano works and demonstrates his capability for writing frolic and sarcastic music. It shows how the Bach variations are not only a homage to Bach, but also a nod to Reger's smaller character pieces. It was an especially effective decision on Reger's part to insert this scherzando variation before the elephantine 14th variation and the sprawling fugue.
Well, you really DO know your Reger!
@@coolhandphilipI wonder if he ever has been to the Max-Reger-Institut in Karlsruhe.
The way he treats the harmony is simply genius
Amazing Reger, Schiff's interpretation is just super! thanks for sharing.
33:38 One of the most epic endings to any piano piece, ever 🔥🔥
Putting this in a recital with Ravel’s Gaspard da la Nuit and Sorabji’s piano sonata no1!
Are you recording it?
Woah
What kind of jokes is this?
You can't be that insane?
Are you still alive
💀💀
wow.. this is absolutely amazing... not only technically, but the clear piano sound, great colours, amazing MUSIC and feelings.
Hearing this masterpiece is quite an experience, and this special interpretation of it only adds to my appreciation. It is awe-inspiring. Thanks for the upload of the music, and the score.
Together with the organ Variations on an original theme op. 73, one of my favorite Reger's works !!
And the Telemann Variations!
Imagine the direction music would have taken had this man lived as long as Stravinsky or Schoenberg.
i only saw SERKIN play this in Carnegie hall along with the telemann variations...never even knew schiff recorded it
Or the direction the _recording_ may have taken had Glenn Gould tried to take this on. - Eeeek!
This is my very favorite TH-cam channel!
The descriptions are very joyful.
This reminds me somewhat of Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica, another Bach-based masterpiece that is ridiculously long, dense, and complex.
Indeed!
@@rudigerk I had the same impression, even though I shouldn't have been surprised to learnt he Reger predates Busoni by about six years.
based
based
based
Oooh, this work. Very challenging set of variations, especially when played in the "standard" tempi, but also very rewarding when you finally learn them. Actually playing the variations as variations of the theme and not simply as their own pieces is much harder than you'd think, if that makes sense. The slower performance is interesting, really lets you experience all the little details in the writing.
Also having a hard time deciding between the Bach variations and the Telemann variations for my favourite Reger piece. Both so very impressive...
The Telemann Variations are wonderful, but the Bach-Variations are imho unparalleled, the greatest set of variations for piano ever written since the Diabelli.
The variation at 9:53 makes me think of Alkan. Just reminds me of the Fire in the Neighboring Village. I love this work!
I had the same thought.
Hadn't studied this before. Really a new jewel in the treasure trove of Reger's works.
This fugue is great! Very nice theme.
Marvelous! Never heard these variations before and so glad they were posted.
Thoroughly enjoying listening to this work - thanks for posting! I started out reading along with the score for the first few pages and went about my business during quarantine. I would come back to it every so often only to be shocked by the differences between what my ears were hearing and what was notated in the score. It’s not so much a matter of ‘what’ is notated in the score but HOW it is notated that I took issue with. I believe many more pianists would take up lesser known works like these were they to be put in a less intimidating and visually ‘impressive’ form. I will state up front that Reger and his prolific output is an area completely out of my realm of knowledge and expertise. That said, it is only my assumption that choices of layout and notation, as well as other absurdities such as time signatures were made by Reger himself. If my assumption is correct, I genuinely feel that Reger essentially ‘shot himself in the foot,’ as the saying goes, by making these, in my opinion, ill-considered and poor choices. It often appears the only motivation in doing so might be to make the score look as hellishly difficult and intimidating as possible. As a composer myself, as well as one self-taught in how to use Finale notation software (and I am not exactly fluent in todays rapidly advancing technologies) - an ‘engraver’ if you will, I would seriously question any composer that actually wishes to have their new works performed, to re-examine their work(s) and seriously reconsider how they notate their music. This could, and should, look SO much easier to play. Why write 32nd and 64th note values when you can achieve the exact same result in sound by using quarters and eighths? It’s always felt ‘wrong’ to me when performing slow movements which are notated in diminutive note values. It always ‘looks’ as if what I’m playing should be going ‘faster’ than it is. Am I alone here? I haven’t read all the comments on this as well as other similar works, so if anyone has any input and can enlighten me in any way, I welcome and invite serious comments on this topic of notation. Great music is great music - but notation is only a means to an end. Since the average listening public rarely sees a note of printed music anyway, what’s the point of this? I would really like to know.
In years past I have played many Stravinsky scores including Le Sacre, as well as music of more contemporary composers and have often thought the very same thing. My interest level in learning and possibly programming and performing your music is in direct proportion to how it looks on the page. When I see what look like fistfuls of black notes and multiple beams and semiquavers, odd notations and page layouts, failure to use the incredibly helpful 8va ‘tool,’ absurd time and often key signature choices....well, let’s just say that I tend to move on.
Notation should facilitate performance, not hinder it. Unless, of course, that was indeed the goal of the composer in the first place. But if that’s true, strange as it may sound, what’s the point?
Seriously...
One of my favourite
24:10 My fav part... Really... Another example of a very underrated finger twisting complicated variation work
yes; keeping the melody down there is a huge difficulty :O
I remember this piece coming on when I had auto play going while working and I managed to get to the 33:00 mark before I was like "what the hell am I listening to?!". incredible masterpiece. wish i had the time to learn this
Its amazing the amount of works we made even he died young. This piece is extremely difficult just to play it...Now if we talk about composing it...
Fantastic performance! In my opinion one of the great pieces by Max Reger, never ever boring, a huge adventure. Are variations out of fashion right now? It is difficult to to take a few parts out for a 10 minutes radio broadcast, you need to hear the whole piece to fully appreciate it. This piece should be a part of the regular repertoire, I am sure the audience, now mostly ignorant, will be most surprised, as I was, and will love it!
It should be part of the repertoire, but is extremely diffcult to play.
Paul Bloemen I fully agree. Who loves the Goldberg, Diabelli or Händel-Variations must love Reger's opus summum 81 too. I have no explanation why this set of variations is not a frequent part of the Standard Repertoire. The extreme difficulty can not be the reason. Many interpreters perform Beethoven's Hammerklaviersonata op 106, Godowskis Passacaglia and other complicated, difficult piano works. Reger as composer has too little promoters in general.
Maybe it's because Reger is known mostly as an organ composer, so people don't expect him has part of a piano recital and performers don't want to go the length of learning this piece when it would potentially fail to draw an audience. But I think it's a great piece and deserves to be heard!
Ahh the sick and twisted love child of Liszt and Brahms. I love it
Gentlemen, I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. Your review is before be, soon it will be behind me.
I still don't get the meaning of this phrase. Can you explain it, please?
@@morganmartinez8420 Reger was well known for his particular sense of humor. The above statement was Reger's response to
a harsh critic. The smallest room is his bathroom. Now guess where the printed critique would end 😂
"The smallest room" is a euphemism for toilet...😚
If he was sitting there it doesn't require much imagination to know what he was doing...!😚😂
He was presumably reading a scathing review of his work...
Does that help?!😉
@@andrewkennaugh1065 This explanation I've already presented in my statement above two month ago! Reading is helpful....😃
@@ullrichherz7053 Yes,but you referred to the toilet as the "bathroom."
There is a difference, especially as many flats and houses still have a separate bathroom and toilet.😙
The bathroom is not the smallest room,some are very large...😊
Are we now in that rather uncomfortable area of American English vs English English?!
In this case I think the English English explains the joke better...😊😊
These varariations are in the very top of the drawer of piano music. Schiff does well, but nobody beats Rudolf Serkins relentlessly stern interpretation.
Serkin is good but you should listen to Hamelin's recording.
Anders Thomsen I completely concur. Reger's Bach-Variations are a pinnacle of piano music, imho on the same level as Bach's Goldberg and Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. Serkin's rendition is simply overwhelming. I have a 1973 live recording and I spend hardly a week without listening to it. Thanks for sharing this rendition with us. It's wonderful too.
The piece that keeps on giving.
A 1st for me with the Bach variations by Reger, I love it instantly thank you X
I disagree with Sorabji's claim that the Godowsky passacaglia has more pianistic interest and variety than this piece. Especially in terms of variety, I think this piece is quite superior and also almost unique among Reger's own output for solo piano.
Magnificent composition.
Nearly killed myself learning this wonderful beast in 5 weeks for a Juilliard concert back in the day.
Wow! I'm not a musician. I'm an organist. This would be more playable on organ using the pedals.
Based
That's insane, I can't learn something this difficult to performance level in 5 weeks!
@@SCRIABINIST Didn't say I played it well, lol
@@kojiattwood Shit, man, it would take me 6 months to perfect something like this. And that’s with tonnes of practice each day.
Check out the big brain on Max! Beautiful!
Ooh, thanks for the introduction, very interesting!
4:18, 9:08, 32:39
Colossal and tragic finale, legendary
This interpretation is my favourite
absolutely genius… i was enthralled from start to finish!
regr
@@James-cr7rc agree
Any other pianists here get nervous just looking at the sheet music...?
ich häbe Yusammenbrüche und musikgechigte prufig
Lol
Me. But I am not a musician. I be a organist.
HAHA! Reger is not for the faint-hearted! Back in my days as concert organist I performed some of his organ works, so I'm familiar with his complex rhythmic figurations, big composite chords, keys with 5+ accidentals plus dozens of accidentals more in the score. But his piano works are more complicated.
My advice to anybody interested in learning Reger's piano work w/o getting bonkers would be: 1) get theoretical knowledge studying Hugo Rieman's "Harmony Treatise" and Reger's "Modulationen"; 2) get some serious Brahms, and Rachmaninov's "Etudes de Tableau" under your belt; 3) Listen to the works score in hand and get the music "in your ear"; 4) Watch Nahre Sol's tutorials here on TH-cam; she is into complex stuff on the piano and knows how to 'dissect' it to speed up the learning process; 5) start with his smaller works like "Traume am Kamin" and then move on to more difficult ones. And TAKE TIME - Reger's works are not learned in just a few weeks.
@@andresgunther Wonderful! In my late teens I learned one of Reger'smaller preludes and fugues, (still cannot find it) then started learning the Choral Fantasie and Fugue: Wachet Auf, Ruft Uns Die Stimme. (Especially love his measured trills!) I had to use a metronome so my excitement did not speed up the tempo. Reger is best played fromemory. I cannot read and play Reger.
This recording has a load of Schiff I keep coming back to.
One word: Elegant.
An exercise in the extreme grandeur of piano textures. Not something you can quietly practice in your room.
If the composer had so many musical ideas to express, I wonder why he didn’t write an orchestral piece instead?
Anyway, it still sounds magnificent and extremely impressive.
This is very beautiful!
Magnifique oeuvre de Reger superbement interprétée par Andras Schiff.
Mille mercis à Ashish Xiangyi Kumar de l'avoir partagée sur TH-cam !
DSCH motif all over the place (e.g. at 21:30). Coincidence, but still fun!
Fine music, fine interpretation.
Magnificent interpretation
Sorabji held this piece and Godowskys passacaglia and fugue in very high regard. He considered both to be the epitome of piano music. I actually agree with him on that.
Weird how the opening notes of the theme are exactly those of Godowsky's Passacaglia on a theme of Schubert!
That's what I thought
And they both start in b minor
and they're both polyphonic monoliths
Получился очень романтичный Бах
I can play one 3-minute Reger fugue and that's enough for me!!! (Though I would love to be able to play this one day :))
Far too few people listen to Reger.
25:55 Fugue
schön melancholisch
Greatest variations
I'm not a bad pianist or organist, but this is WAY beyond my capacities!
I actually lived just outside the city where he did most of his composing (Weiden in der Oberpfalz, in northeastern Bavaria). All this is awesome, but incredibly difficult. Not the theme or the first couple of variations--but then he takes it to another level, one I'm not even close to.
@@kenhowes9951 But it sounds very harmonic. No hypertrophic forced virtuoso music, but very distinct and crystal clear. So much notes and not a single superfluous.
You can be a great pianist and find this too hard. It’s an INSANELY difficult piece. I showed this to my music professor and he thought it looked horrifying.
He has genius feeling of this variations
so heavy so cool
Thank God we had Andras Schiff to perform this instead of Glenn Gould. Nothing against Gould, but I don't think this Reger piece "needs" any specific re-interpretations. Like Paul Hindemith, Max Reger (another super-counterpuntalist), has been accused of writing cold, academic music. But I believe Schiff elegantly and _thoughtfully_ attempts to keep the story-line personal. It would be easy for a performance of this piece to become fragmented, disassociative, skitzophrenic even. (AKA Glen Gould?) // This performance also reflects Schiff's own Hungarian personality: uptight, yet passionately emotive.
If anyone has not read the background info and analysis of this performance in the above notes, it's a very poignant observation on it. Thank you, Mr. Ashish.
And thank you all for listening to the passing, if not florid opinions of: _The Acoustic Rabbit Hole_
Astonishing!!
Génie humain... Triptyque musical
Maxnificent ! Thank you, AXK.
Played this my senior year of highschool
Регер - Бах позднего романтизма.
Reading "Steppenwolf" by Hermann Hesse, I came across this passage: "When the piece ended he woke up, straightened up, and made a movement to go; but after all he kept his seat and heard the last piece too. I was Variations by Roger, a composition that many found rather long and tiresome."
Reger was a colossus; the German Rachmaninoff. Unfortunately he ate too much, drank too much, worked too much, and died too young. More unfortunately, the latest generation of fabulous young pianists doesn't seem interested in performing his works either, so they will remain on obscurity for God only knows how many more years to come. I didn't know that Schiff performs Reger. I have Becker's recordings, he did a monumental job, but at the end Serkin still is the best, imho.
Smoked too much as well. It's a true shame that almost all of the greatest late/post romantic contrapuntal masters are so forgotten today. Only Rachmaninoff thankfully avoided this fate. In order of rising obscurity: Busoni, Medtner, Godowsky, Reger, Marx: Those five deserve much wider recognition.
@@SpaghettiToaster To which Marx are you referring to? I presume not Karl right?
You also forgot Szymanowski, Feinberg and Myaskovsky :P
@@scriabinismydog2439 Joseph Marx. He was the number 1 musical authority in Vienna in the first half of the 21st century, but is now inexplicably completely forgotten. Check out his music, you'll be convinced. The composers you mention are also great, but to me personally, not in the same league as the ones I listed. Although Szymanowsky did write some great counterpoint as well.
@@SpaghettiToaster Well yeah I agree that Myaskovsky and Szymanowski weren't the best at counterpoint compared to the alredy mentioned Reger etc. (with the exeption of the Fugue in Szymanowski's 3rd Sonata which I think is marvelous and perfectly shaped). I also find some Sorabji Fugues to have an immensely intricate yet (quasi)-understandable counterpoint... Maybe the reason why it's hard to notice the "contrapuntality" is that they're almost completely atonal?
Also I personally don't find Medtner to be a great counterpuntal writer, but I don't know him well, perhaps the only exeption is the fugue in the Sonata MInacciosa which I find completely amazing. Oh and thanks for the recommendation!
@@scriabinismydog2439 I'm not a big fan of Sorabji.. I don't think it's that hard to write a 20-voice fugue when there are absolute no requirements to how it should sound. I do like a very small subset of his music, but not enough to justify listening to 10 hours of whatever surrounds it. It's just not my taste I suppose.
Medtner is extremely counterpuntal in Beethoven's (and to a degree Brahms') style (polyphonic motivic writing that builds a large structure with rigorous counterpoint episodes at key moments). If you analyse almost any of his larger pieces (piano and violin sonatas, quintet, concertos etc) you'll be amazed how much motivic counterpoint there is. There are some fantastic analysis videos of his music on yt that will make this abundantly clear. These three should suffice to convince you that Medtner was a counterpuntal master of the highest calibre:
th-cam.com/video/r3YiKbMFbAk/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/FpoMyyVzduA/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/AX3jNHZGswE/w-d-xo.html
レーガーのこの変奏曲は、厳粛なテーマから始まり、他のオケ曲と同様な展開がなされ、ピアノ弾きにとっては、レーガーの本質を味わえる格好な曲になってます。
A monolith for musical creation .
Gosh Schiff takes it slow! I have the Kees Schul recording which is actually pretty good.
Sounds interesting, unlike some other Reger piece I had listened to. I'll add it to my "Watch later" list.
No wonder other composers of his generation hated Reger! He was better than any of them (with the exception of Franz Schmidt)!
I love both. But Richard Strauss still my favorite of that periode.
Nice to see a mention of the wonderful Franz Schmidt; such a tragedy his piano technique was sneered at in his early years and so he only left significant keyboard works for the organ.
I like it.
In the fugue, shouldn't the tenor entry in the exposition be an octave lower than than the soprano entry (a fifth lower than written)?
No, from what i see it is all fine.
How does the Fugue correspond to the Theme by Bach? Does it fit harmonically with the melody of the theme? Is it a permutation of some of the notes? Or is it purely original?
The theme of the fugue is not directy related to the Bach theme, but rather conceived in the spirit of other calm themes by Bach.
It allows him to bring out the theme bit by bit. Listen at 29:57 for example, where the whole B section of the theme is played pretty much straight.
30:45
33:10
Nice!
Gosh. I thought Franck prelude chorale and fugue was hard...
he went for the picardy third lmao
23:18-25:51
Sounds ethereal to be a german composer. I would have guessed Ferruccio Busoni.
Like if Schumann came back from his mental hospital, then lived for another 30 years, and then started writing Bach variations
basically Brahms, but more modern?
brahms on xanax
I would love to hear B A C H in dotted rhythm XD
danke
With regards to the fugue, does anyone else hear references to the B-flat minor fugue from WTC Book II?
7:14 Play 11 notes with 10 fingers xD
you don't have to go that far. can anyone play a C3 and a G4 at the same time with just one hand?
Well the right hand can easily play both D and E with the thumb but yeah that's quite funny when you think about it.
If you think that's funny, just check out Sorabji. Some chords have 8-9 notes to play with one hand.
For that purpose one has a nose tip.
@@tleta Just ask Rachmaninov..
24:22 thumbnail
Edit: nvm it’s 25:30
After watching and listening to all of this except for the fugue at the end, I am wondering whether or not Reger ever accidentally forgot an accidental and/or accidentally left out an accidental?
In terms of being more clear with the theme, I prefer LIszt's F&F on BACH. But still, Reger is a master, and this piece is an amazing work.
This is not the Reger composition to be compared with but rather his op. 46 (F&F on B-A-C-H)
@@ullrichherz7053 Agree
24:07