‘Like Grandma’s oatmeal, Reger is good for you in some unspecified way but difficult to digest.’ Phil Salathé’s witty note for Bridge’s disc of clarinet sonatas sums up the feelings of many towards the music of Max Reger. Littered with hemiolas which lead to rhythmic instability, the long-breathed melodies are full of chromatic twists and turns. It’s knotty, like gnarled Brahms. Reger’s two Op 49 sonatas were penned in just three weeks, in the spring of 1900, while Op 107 – what the composer mockingly called his ‘new crime against harmony and counterpoint’ – was written in 1909.

The clarinet sonatas bring out Reger’s lyrical side and nod to his profound reverence for Brahms (he supposedly died with a portrait of the older composer in his hands). All three fit neatly on a single disc, and two new, identically programmed offerings compete for the attention of Regerphiles this year, the centenary of his death.

Alan R Kay, for Bridge, doesn’t present the best case for the Op 49 works. He isn’t helped by the recording, but there is a limited dynamic range to his playing, with little variation between ff and pp. Reger marks the final phrases of the Vivace of the A flat Sonata (Op 49 No 1) ppp, but you wouldn’t know it. Kay’s playing veers towards the bland and under-characterised. He is stronger in the autumnal air of the B flat Sonata (Op 107), particularly the sombre melancholy of the Adagio. Jon Klibonoff is hampered by a limp piano sound – not unlike a fortepiano but with muddy bass.

On Brilliant Classics, Claudio Conti plays with far greater conviction and passion. He takes the A flat Sonata’s Larghetto at a flowing pace. Reger marks the movement Larghetto (ma non troppo, un poco con moto) but in Kay’s recording there is little sense of movement at all. Conti plays with a sense of engagement and flair. His rich, dark sound suits the muscular Allegro dolente that opens the F sharp minor Sonata (Op 49 No 2). Unfortunately he is hamstrung throughout, not by Roberta Bambace’s alert playing but by the tinny piano, which lacks bass presence. Hamstrung Reger is even harder to love.