Reger Organ Works

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger

Label: Hyperion

Media Format: Cassette

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: KA66223

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(2) Chorale Fantasias, Movement: Straf' mich nicht in deinem Zorn (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Herr, du willst so schicks mit mir (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Nun freut euch, lieben Christen (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Wer weiss, wie nahe mir mein Ende (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ

Composer or Director: (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger

Label: Hyperion

Media Format: Vinyl

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: A66223

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(2) Chorale Fantasias, Movement: Straf' mich nicht in deinem Zorn (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Herr, du willst so schicks mit mir (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Nun freut euch, lieben Christen (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Wer weiss, wie nahe mir mein Ende (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ

Composer or Director: (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger

Label: Hyperion

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 55

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: CDA66223

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(2) Chorale Fantasias, Movement: Straf' mich nicht in deinem Zorn (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Herr, du willst so schicks mit mir (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Nun freut euch, lieben Christen (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
(52) Easy Chorale Preludes, Movement: Wer weiss, wie nahe mir mein Ende (Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
(Johann Baptist Joseph) Max(imilian) Reger, Composer
Graham Barber, Organ
On Radio 3's ''Music Weekly'', if I remember rightly, Graham Barber suggested that Reger's organ music only had a reputation for turgidity because it was not generally heard on the kind of instrument the composer intended it for. After his demonstration of excerpts on just such an instrument I remember finding the results pretty well as turgid as ever.
But radio is a less reliable medium than CD, and the Limburg Cathedral organ, built in 1978, sounds splendid on this fine Hyperion recording. Presumably it is on the approved list of Reger-worthy instruments. Certainly the registrations, with one small exception, seem wholly appropriate. I especially liked the Positiv Nasard in the Chorale Prelude Herr, wie du willst, and in lyrical sections the tremulant is as tastefully deployed as a tremulant can be. A great deal of care has obviously gone into presenting the music as faithfully as possible and I certainly cannot remember enjoying a Reger recital more than this one (how I wish that were a more straightforward compliment than it is). Confirmed Regerians will need no more encouragement; sceptics can be assured that here is a record which presents the music in virtually the best possible light.
For what it is worth, my own doubts are far from stilled. The Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue is a brontosaurus of a piece, and however tastefully adorned, such a lumbering creature is difficult to pass off as one of Nature's most aesthetically perfect creations—the return of the Introduction at the end of the Passacaglia is gloriously predictable and the working out of the double fugue is scarcely less so. Also I would query the registration for the seventeenth passacaglia statement, where a prominent Terz stop (rather than the specified fifteenth) produces parallel octaves and a bizarre cadence. The Chorale Fantasia has a rather splendid dramatic outburst in response to the image of Damned Souls, but the very opening—ppp diminuendo on low eight- and sixteen-foot stops—can hardly avoid sounding like a well-modulated foghorn. The Chorale Preludes, claimed by the ever-optimistic Reger to be ''easy and practicable'', are well chosen, and Von Himmel hoch rounds off the disc most impressively.'

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