Max Reger - 6 Intermezzi Op. 45

[@albertpeckham8708]

Max Reger is one of the most under appreciated composers of the 20th century. I have adored his music for some 60 years!

[@PatrickSchoenb]

Then, you might like this one: www.highresaudio.com/de/album/view/85mxi6/bernhard-schneider-patrick-scho-nbach-hommage-a-max-reger-fu-r-orgel

[@organman52]

And I have loathed it for just as long. I find it to be contrived and derivative. But what do I know?

[@neilsaunders6009]

@@organman52 Not much, by the look of it.

[@organman52]

@@neilsaunders6009 Yeah - you're absolutely right. I know LESS than nothing.

[@neilsaunders6009]

@@organman52 On a positive note, whose music do you like?

[@ronaldbwoodall2628]

This is absolutely gorgeous music! I've always been attracted to Reger's music since first hearing his Mozart and Hiller Variations. He has been criticized for his harmonic complexity and melodic simplicity, but that (when true) only adds to the attractiveness and originality of his style. His works are imbued with "gemutlichkeit", a free-spirited "take it or leave it" attitude, that, when taken, are rife with rewards.

[@Vincent_Xia]

Interesting how Reger uses Brahms' (late) piano works as a model while exhibiting flashes of Liszt's virtuosity at moments. Many Lisztian tropes can be observed particularly in the 4th intermezzo, which contains double notes and alternating octaves/chords in spades, and a reference to Mazeppa at 14:14. It is as if Reger is lampooning the extravagant traditions of late-Romantic virtuosity, while indulging in them by taking those tropes a step further.

[@Vincent_Xia]

7:57 This specific part strangely reminds me of Scriabin, likely because of the harmonies, the use of thick chords/octaves, the dotted rhythm, and the trill flourish at the end of the phrase.

[@Poeme340]

As a Scriabin devotee…I must agree.👍

[@wellknown3249]

I think the beginning sounds a little like scriabins allegro appassionato op. 4

[@Vincent_Xia]

@@wellknown3249 ​I suppose it does, given the falling dotted rhythm at the beginning of Reger Op. 45 No. 3 is present. This piece is also reminiscent of Brahms' intermezzo Op. 118 No. 6. Both are in the same key, both have diminished 7th harmony in the beginning and the section at 6:38 is strikingly similar to this moment: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKGmhapvqdaKoqM (C-flat major harmony, floating arpeggios in the left hand, sixths in the right hand, both moments even start with the same 6th in the right hand and C-flat bass in the left).

[@PokeMaestro]

Hallo :D

[@tarikeld11]

​@@PokeMaestrohi 😂

[@gregorymills5363]

Marvelous! I've loved Reger's music for decades. This set is really spectacular. Great pianist too!

[@teunvandesteeg7836]

Boy, boy, boy, how difficult this is, but typical Max Reger. Glorious, I like it so much.

[@robertgift]

Wow! Fantastic! Thank you, OV, for sharing the performance and the score.

[@r.i.p.volodya]

What a fantastic set of pieces! Absolute nightmare to play of course...

[@goostennapel636]

Beautiful music, great performance. Thank you very much

[@yagiz885]

0:49 these brahmsian chord progresses are so intense!

[@Poeme340]

Agreed!

[@davidrehak3539]

Max Reger:6 Intermezzi Op.45 1.Molto eccitato e vivace - Meno mosso 00:00 2.Estremamente vivace, aggraziato - Meno mosso - Un poco piú mosso - Tempo primo (Estremamente vivace) - Piú presto - Prestissimo 01:24 3.Lentamente, con un'espressione appassionato, abbastanza fantastica - piú agitato - Agitato assai 06:18 4. Il più velocemente possibile, con umorismo - Sempre assai leggiero - Quasi andante sostenuto,ma non troppo - Tempo I (Il più velocemente possibile) - Piú prestissimo - Prestissimo assai - 10:01 5.Con grande passione ed energia (Piútosto vivace) - Adagio 14:47 6. Il più velocemente possibile - Meno mosso - Tempo primo - Piú mosso 18:15 Markus Becker-zongora

[@paulbloemen7256]

Spectacular music, great performance!

[@andreasloebell3268]

le troisième intermezzo est particulièrement grandiose. On ne s'en lasse pas ! Comment font les musiciens pour s'y retrouver dans ce dédale d'altérations !

[@harryandruschak2843]

Thank you.

[@ThatGuy5331]

I would pay good money to see Liszt and Brahms react to this!

[@metodoinstinto]

They would probably just yawn

[@ThatGuy5331]

Odisseu de Ítaca Hahaha I somehow doubt that

[@dhu2056]

I would pay good money to see Liszt and Brahms. Period.

[@PeterLunowPL]

funny!

[@seandanielson1]

Reger actually sent one of his early compositions to Brahms and Brahms responded enthusiastically. I'm sure Liszt would be happy to see someone taking chances and experimenting with harmony just as he did!

[@ziegunerweiser]

I have the 12 cd box of becker playing reger, very enjoyable to the very last. I don't remember ever hearing something that sounded like Brahms... but ...somehow it sounded like Brahms with the right hand and Liszt with the left. Does the title not hint at a Brahms influence? My favorite Reger was variations and fugue on a theme of Bach op 81 but I quite like this. I always thought he was the greatest composer of polyphonic music second only to Bach. His solo music for strings is as good as anything out there, if you're a violist, Reger Hindemith and vieuxtemps is your bread and butter. I also suspect Hindemith greatly admired Reger, I'm sure a lot of people did. When I think of Reger I also think of Busoni and Godowski, they all must have loved Bach as you can hear it in their music and the many transcriptions they produced.

[@EmilianoManna]

Yes, Hindemith said that Reger's music was fundamental in the development of his musical style. Another admirer was Schonberg

[@KiranKumar-bs3re]

Max Reger is like Brahms but on crack

[@andresgunther]

Actually Reger was influenced by Bach, Schumann and Brahms. Many think more of the latter since Schumann died relatively young, and Brahms carried on his style to new heights. Another, almost forgotten but very important influence is Reger's teacher Hugo Riemann (see Wikipedia for details)

[@ethanmitchell9642]

Thank you very much for uploading! At some point maybe about 3 years ago, I must have dismissed Reger because it wasn't quite to my tastes (I probably heard something not as interesting as this though). But this is wonderful!! As a Brahms fan, I very much like the textures here and overall exquisiteness. Hopefully I will be able to learn these pieces in the future, but my current technique is not ready for this!!

[@olla-vogala4090]

+Ethan Mitchell Good luck with that, these pieces are VERY difficult... :)

[@ethanmitchell9642]

Absolutely, I wouldn't attempt these in at least 5 years.

[@alejandrom.4680]

@@ethanmitchell9642 5 years have passed, have you tried them? I will try the last one! Hahahaa

[@maniak1768]

It's amazing how wonderfully ugly these pieces are. Amazing music, I love the 5th very much. It is so bulky, so odd, so disfigured, so mad for its time, if you just look at the first chords, they sound like the tantrum of a cyclops or some strange beast. The form seems alien, too, and you're left wondering if it was all elaborately planned or a total farce of a piece: phrases going nowhere, yelling transitions, chopped-off developments, heterogeneous layouts of the accompanying textures... I don't even start with the harmonics. Don't believe me? Just sing along the melodic lines out on the streets and you certainly have a great means to irritate people. Also if you try to sing along you actually get a grasp at this very unlikely, interesting, somewhat wonderful music. Thanks for posting!

[@christianwouters6764]

This would be great music to chase homeless hoodlums and junks away from railway stations and public places. It is proven that they can't stand classical music but Reger is unsupportable to the utmost degree.

[@happypiano4810]

I still don’t know if you like these or not.

[@Poeme340]

Sir Cyril Scott; “the sublimation of ugliness”-I agree with you. This is tough stuff, but…beautiful.👍

[@orb3796]

@@christianwouters6764 Have you ever tried feeling empathy for the less fortunate?

[@christianwouters6764]

@@orb3796 There are plenty of places where they can listen to rock&roll, techno and other kinds of modern mindless noise.

[@marco119w7]

This is what I'd imagine what Brahms' music would sound like if he lived through the 20th century.

[@Poeme340]

Yes, indeed.

[@ciararespect4296]

Thanks extremely I've just screenshot these and played them on my piano

[@erikfreitas7093]

If I hadn’t known about Reger, I might’ve assumed that these pieces were the result of a collaboration between Brahms and Medtner!

[@jean-jacqueskaselorganreco6879]

superb playing!Regher's piano music is nearly ignored, and there is no explanation to it.The huge overfat and hysterically exhalted big organ works on the other side, aer overvalued, and I say it being a concert organist and professor of organ! The only cherry on the cake would have been to use a Bösendorfer Imperial for this recording

[@tarikeld11]

18:15 This must be inspired by the last movement of Beethoven's sonata no 18

[@tarikeld11]

Now that I look back, it has nothing to do with the sonata, it's just a standard tarantella rhythm

[@yagiz885]

15:23

[@ziegunerweiser]

So here it is many months later and I am finally starting to make my way through really getting to know max reger's piano music. I still remember the first time I bumped into a cd of solo violin music recorded by maybe and not picking it up for several months. Somehow that same cd kept attracting my attention until my curiosity finally got the best of me. When I first heard it, i categorized him as a Bach clone, more Bach like than any other I had ever heard. That was about 16 years ago and it is not until now I am starting to realize there is so much more than that in his sound. The depth of his music is so complex and somehow seems to incorporate stylistic innovations from every conceivable direction form Bach to Chopin to Brahms. It's mature, harmonically robust, with so many layers of depth of imagination and development. Of those that came after Liszt it was Godowsky and Busoni and Hindemith and Dohnanyi and Rachmaninoff and Balakirev and Walton that I placed at the top of the list, much to my surprise - other than Rachmaninoff I think now Reger is probably the most consistently advanced composer of piano music there is, again much to my surprise he turned out to be so much more than a one sided Bach clone and the more I seem to explore his music the more I am surprised how advanced he really was. More so than just this opus reveals, I encourage everyone to explore all his piano music, I think you will be just as surprised as I am right now. I also find myself needing to listen repeatedly to fully digest the depth and making of every nuance. I wholeheartedly recommend the 12 cd box of Becker and look forward to other recordings and performances moving forward.

[@ziegunerweiser]

My previous post I was referring to a cd by a violinist named mathe

[@ziegunerweiser]

There is so much more than what is up on you tube and so much more than what little music that most people have heard but a fraction of his output for solo piano that I think very few have taken the time to explore all his piano music. The deeper you dig, the more complex you discover his sound really is. I think that someone can not casually listen, you have to close your eyes and focus on the sound and what is happening rhythmically and harmonically and also to fully appreciate his sound you have to really listen many times. The textures are so dense and complex it takes some time to fully appreciate what is happening. I am not even close to being able to play his music but I can get to know what is happening on a musical level. Anyone fortunate enough to explore what else he has to offer surely not be disappointed. When such a man dies, he continues to live through his music, his personality leaping out of the notes on the page.

[@ziegunerweiser]

Reger and Balakirev are the most underrated composers I know of

[@ullrichherz7053]

scottbos68 I'm not a musician, only a lover of classical music since more than 40 years and I appreciate your statement on Reger's piano compositions. With 17 I fell in love with Bach and Beethoven, only one year later with Reger. I also purchased Becker's CD box and like it a great deal, although I prefer Serkin's interpretation of the marvelous Bach Variations opus 81. I personally prefer Reger's op. 81 (summum) to any other set of piano variations though I like the Goldberg and Diabelli very much.

[@ullrichherz7053]

scottbos68 You most likely refer to Reger's Sonatas for Violin op. 91 performed by Ulrike-Anima Mathe. I like this interpretation too a great deal as well as the Becker's Reger-Box. Are you familiar with the wonderful 'Maximum Reger'-Box by Fugue State Films? Very recommendable!

[@anhducduong0105]

No.1 sounds like Chopin's 3rd Sonata 4th Movement: Agitated, Dark and Fiery.

[@Ivan_1791]

Große musik.

[@음악감상용-r5w]

18:16

[@kirillkondrashin6204]

Music from a drunken genius.

[@andresgunther]

It is difficult for me to understand why Reger is not performed more often in our day and age. After 103 years Reger's works are not out of any musician's comprehension and ability to play & interpret them, and we have young, talented pianists able to excel performing Reger's works and make them known to their wast audience in concert and online... I think of my favorites Yuja Wang and Tiffany Poon ;-) I hope to live long enough to witness Reger becoming popular!

[@trid3nt749]

Mein Tempo wäre viel schneller, das "irgend möglich" dieses Pianisten ist unter meinen Ansprüchen. Viele Grüße, Leon Reger

[@r0mmm]

Das stimmt, aber ich finde das Tempo hörtechnisch angemessen.

[@alesa351]

way to ignore 90% of the dynamics in the 2nd one

[@ethanmitchell9642]

Lol, no plagiarism whatsoever from Rachmaninoff at 20:37

[@craigresnianky6909]

+Ethan Mitchell, this work was written in 1900. Rachmaninoff's first great piano compositions (Preludes Op. 23 and Op.32, Etudes-Tableaux Op.33 and Op.39) were written between 1903 - 1911. The 2nd Piano Concerto wasn't in circulation till 1901. So no, there is probably not any Rachmaninoff influence here.

[@sergio4425-g7u]

Sounds like sonata op.36 1mov

[@SpaghettiToaster]

If anything, that's plagiarising chopin op 25 no 11.

[@WEEBLLOM]

​@@SpaghettiToasterhow

[@SpaghettiToaster]

@@WEEBLLOM What do you mean, how? The texture sounds exactly the same lol.