Reger is having a good year. That his most famous (some would say infamous) work for orchestra should have finally appeared in a thoroughly recommendable modern version is obviously cause for celebration amongst enthusiasts, and I strongly urge sceptics to lend an ear as well.
''Full of grace, free of all earthly weight'' was how Reger described these Variations. Well, yes, but what about the maestoso appearance on brass of Mozart's pretty, slender theme in the closing bars of the concluding fugue? Surely, an act of gigantism likely to cause any self respecting Mozartian to dive for cover. To be fair to Reger, Elgar gave similarly grandiose treatment to his theme at the end of the Enigma Variations, and nobody worries about that anymore. But, then, it was his theme. It is a measure of Davis's accomplishment that he manages to invest this passage with as much dignity as possible and still achieve a satisfyingly ample conclusion.
Sir Colin's credentials as a Mozartian need no extolling here (and as a Regerian—his recording of the Hiller Variations on Orfeo is in every way a match for the recent Chandos version by Jarvi) but, interestingly, the best known exponent of this work on record is another sterling Mozartian: Karl Bohm. Nowhere is the difference between the two conductor's approaches more marked than in the presentation of Mozart's theme at the outset. Davis phrases the theme simply and affectionately with a fair measure of grace that eluded Keilberth (Teldec) and Bongartz (Eurodisc—both nla). Bohm, in the second of his two versions (made for DG in 1957 with the Berlin Philharmonic—long deleted) and at a tempo well below Reger's metronome marking, adopted a more knowing 'Regerish' manner with a long-breathed legato line and more attention to the swells within the phrases. Of the two, I prefer Davis, if only because he provides more contrast with the ensuing variations.
Concerning the variations, my notebook is full of delighted comments on both music and performance far too numerous to mention. There is a wider range of mood than in the Beethoven Variations, and the set as a whole progresses in a more coherent arch form than the Hiller Variations (and is marginally less massive in scale). The last variation (before the concluding fugue) is, without doubt, the most extraordinary. Cast as a free fantasia, this molto sostenuto inhabits a late-romantic dreamworld of breathtaking beauty, I can think of no more specific way to describe it. Davis is dangerously slow here compared to his predecessors, but such is the concentration of mood that he avoids stasis, and the music's echoes of Delius and Scriabin in their lushest modes seem to emerge all the more potently.
Bohm was perhaps preferable in the fifth variation (a kind of tame Scarbo in Lederhosen darts in and vandalizes the theme completely). Davis can't quite match Bohm's whiplash excitement here, but his slower tempo allows you to savour the agility of the idea, and its realization (consummate scoring). Indeed, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra never sounding more committed on disc, this issue is another nail in the coffin of the adage that Reger is impossibly turgid.
Were the Hindemith any less successful, I would be complaining about unnecessary duplication. I suppose I could complain about a missing glockenspiel in the opening Allegro (8 bars before fig. F—2'34'') or about a bad edit just before the central section of the Andantino, and I wish Davis had encouraged the percussion to let rip a little more in the Turandot scherzo (like Rickenbacher on Virgin Classics, Davis uses real bells here, rather than the more common tubular variety). But, I can't think of any other drawbacks. I loved the way the trumpets and horns hurl trills at each other across the stage in the scherzo, and Davis has more fun with its central fugato than Jarvi (Chandos) with the first horn superbly firm of tone (and superbly recorded too) both here and at the centre of the Andantino. Davis may be too molto espresivo in this Andantino, with a slow basic speed and lashings of rubato, but not for me. And if the final March lacks a little character at the outset, Davis makes amends in the concluding frolics, where again, the descanting horns cover themselves in glory. In the all important matter of balancing Hindemith's bubbling counterpoint, and those trills in the scherzo, Davis and Blomstedt (Decca) are more successful than Jarvi.
The best compliment I can pay to Philips' engineering is that you are never aware of the microphones, yet almost no important detail is masked. In the Hindemith, the sound may lack the bright, open presence of Decca's for Blomstedt, but the string tone is a good deal richer. With the warning that the disc needs a higher replay level than usual, I can confidently recommend this as an important and very cherishable release.'