Composer: Max Reger
Performer: Gerhard Weinberger
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CPO
Catalogue: 555229-2
Release: 2021
Size: 485 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
Introduktion, Variationen und Fuge über ein Originalthema, Op. 73
01. Introduktion – Variationen
02. Fuge. Vivacissimo
Präludium und Fuge in E Major, Op. 56 No. 1
03. I. Präludium
04. II. Fuge
Präludium und Fuge in G Major, Op. 56 No. 3
05. I. Präludium
06. II. Fuge
CD 02
Fantasie und Fuge in C Minor, Op. 29
01. I. Fantasie
02. II. Fuge
Präludium und Fuge in D Minor, Op. 56 No. 2
03. I. Präludium
04. II. Fuge
Choralvorspiele, Op. 79b
05. No. 1, Ach Gott, verlass mich nicht
06. No. 3, Herr, nun selbst den Wagen halt
07. No. 8, Christ ist erstanden von dem Tod
08. No. 9, Christus, der ist mein Leben
09. No. 11, Nun danket alle Gott
Präludium und Fuge in B Minor, Op. 56 No. 5
10. I. Präludium
11. II. Fuge
Fantasie und Fuge in D Minor, Op. 135b
12. I. Fantasie
13. II. Fuge
At long last the successful Reger Edition of CPO continues on its way. The critics have been more than enthusiastic about the previous releases, and Musik & Theater even stated: “These recordings number among the best currently available in the field of Reger’s organ music”. This seventh volume is featuring Reger’s five easy-to-play Preludes and Fugues, Op. 56.
Although the composer termed this composition “an organ work of small caliber” in a letter to the publisher Lauterbach & Kuhn, the critics reacted positively, and the organist and composer Robert Frenzel numbered its pieces, which form anything but a secondary work, “among the most poetic phenomena in the most recent organ literature”. The generic combination of “Prelude and Fugue” is frequently assigned to the realm of so-called absolute music, but Reger’s Op. 56 does not seem to belong to this world in which only the musical structure is of significance; instead, particularly the preludes, which mostly practice dynamic moderation – like many of the “pieces” from Op. 59 and other works – are distinguished by a pronounced poetic character.