Reger wrote four large-scale organ Fantasias and Fugues which were not based on chorale melodies. Ranging in playing length from 17 minutes (Op 29) to more than 25 (Op 57), these comprise the latest release in a slowly emerging series of Reger’s organ works from David Goode.

It began in 2003 when Herald released a three-disc set billed as ‘Complete Organ Works, Vol 1’. A decade later a two-disc set of Goode playing Reger on the organ of Symphony Hall, Birmingham, appeared (Signum, 3/14), described on Goode’s own website as Vol 2 of the Reger series. So, with the appearance of this latest Reger disc, returning to Bath Abbey where Vol 1 was recorded, we can assume Goode has reached the third in the Reger cycle, even if such a designation does not appear anywhere on this two-disc set itself.

Despite their widely spaced release dates (this latest volume misses the centenary of Reger’s death by a whisker), all the recordings date from 2003. Consequently there is no sense of a player gradually coming to terms with this difficult (in all senses of the word) music, and while the playing is excellent and Goode shows himself to have a strong understanding of the musical idiom, he generally seems to hold the music at arm’s length, never really taking the risks involved in delving much beyond the textural and technical complexities to find the real heart of the music (something Martin Schmeding has so brilliantly achieved in his complete Reger recordings – Cybèle, 3/17).

Goode takes a suitably spacious and expansive view of these four heavyweight works, untangling Reger’s characteristically labyrinthine chromatic textures with infinite care and patience. This certainly serves to ease the passage through both the Op 46 work based around the B A C H motif and the truly massive ‘Symphonic’ Fantasia of Op 57 with its almost frighteningly austere opening gestures, brilliantly delivered here in a burst of dazzling virtuosity.

This relaxed approach pays handsome dividends in the complex Fugue of Op 135b, which wanders into an almost impenetrably dark chromatic jungle. Luckily, at 6'40", Goode finds some delightfully sprightly stops from the Bath Abbey Klais and matches them with some equally sylph-like articulation to bring a welcome flash of brightness. He pulls the same trick to alleviate the daunting rock-solid faces of Op 29, where the contrast between the grim full organ and the delicate flutes in the Fantasia brings a rare touch of lightness to proceedings.

Jonathan Wright has produced a fine recorded sound; and while Goode’s own booklet-notes are somewhat dry and technical, they are mercifully concise – a description it is difficult to apply to the music on the disc itself.