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Track(s) taken from SIGCD329

Five Easy Preludes and Fugues, Op 56

composer
Max Reger (1873-1916)
1901

David Goode (organ)
Recording details: August 2003
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, United Kingdom
Produced by Jonathan Lane
Engineered by Jonathan Lane & Jonathan Clarke
Release date: April 2013
Total duration: 44 minutes 57 seconds
 

Reviews

'The main elements of this double CD are opp 73 and 127, both over 30 minutes in length and illustrative of Reger at his most inventive. With Reger's writing bordering on Impressionism here, it is hard to sustain the musical narrative at this length. However, Goode has a natural instinct for this music and one is effortlessly navigated through all the technical challenges presented. By way of contrast the second CD contains the Five Easy Preludes & Fugues and a pair of Reger's Bach transcriptions. I had my doubts as to whether the Symphony Hall Klais organ would prove ideal, but what one loses in atmosphere with the concert hall acoustics, one gains in clarity' (Choir & Organ)

'Even by Max Reger's standards, the works that fill the first of this pair of discs are massive: at 35 and 31 minutes respectively, they are his two most substantial organ works. The Introduction, Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme Op 73, composed in 1903, is couched in the dense, chromatic style typical of Reger's maturity and dominated by the huge central set of variations, which is followed by a relatively modest concluding fugue. In the Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue in E minor Op 127, from 10 years later, the weight is again the central section, a passacaglia with 26 variations. In this case it is balanced by a hefty double fugue, while the textures have a clarity and, in David Goode's performance on the organ of Symphony Hall, Birmingham, a greater crispness, that really do suggest more transparency in Reger's later style. By contrast, the Five Easy Preludes and Fugues on the second disc seem much more straightforward and lighter in tone; Goode certainly makes them sparkle in a way that belies the composer's dour image' (The Guardian)

'The two major organ works on these discs show Max Reger at the height of his powers. They are performed by David Goode on the organ at Symphony Hall, Birmingham. As well as the large-scale works, such as Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme, the set includes shorter preludes and fugues. Compelling recitals' (The Northern Echo)
The Five Easy Preludes and Fugues date from 1901, between the great Op 52 Chorale Fantasies and the formidable Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue Op 57; one might speak of them, as of Beethoven’s Bagatelles, as ‘chips from the master’s workbench’.

No 1 in E is one of Reger’s most lyrical inspirations. It begins as a trio, moves through episodes of atmospheric chordal writing before the opening material reappears, deliciously embellished with counterpoint. The Fugue builds steadily from its calm opening; an unusual feature is the appearance of the theme in augmentation for the first pedal entry.

The D minor Prelude is a mercurial conception, mingling scherzando moments with those of a more shadowy nature. The Fugue is fast, restless and intensely chromatic, quite belying its description as ‘easy’.

The G major adopts the pastoral associations of that key, with a meandering Andante Prelude which occasionally threatens to reach a powerful climax but invariably veers to gentler reaches. The Fugue is a spacious affair in alla breve time.

The C major Prelude is the most overtly Baroque of the set—it conjures memories of the style brisé of the C major Prelude from Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier. The Fugue is a very good-natured scherzo in 2/4 time; it is unusual in ending quietly.

The B minor Prelude looks forward to Op 73 in its melancholy tone and short rhetorical exchanges. It is notable for a contrapuntal central episode whose subject curiously recalls Aus tiefer not, inverted. The Fugue is sinuously chromatic throughout; at bar 32 it presents a counter-exposition with the subject inverted, after which both versions jostle for supremacy towards the conclusion.

from notes by David Goode © 2013

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