RWA Volume II/3 – Biographical context

Knud Breyer, Stefan König

1.

Following Reger’s successful first performance of his Violin Sonata op. 41 with Josef Hösl in Munich in December 1900, and several organ recitals by Karl Straube were very favorably reviewed in the press, his desire to leave the confines of Weiden, increasingly perceived as restrictive, for the cultural metropolis matured. And so on 1 September 1901 Reger moved with his parents and his sister to München-Haidhausen. In Munich he was soon able to make a name as a song accompanist. His sensitive, translucent and nuanced piano playing and his ability to offer singers a perfect support through a precisely-balanced mixture of blending in and leading, was generally widely praised.1 For his plans for a career starting out from Munich, the city offered the opportunity for Reger to present his double talents as composer and pianist, and particularly to push ahead with composing in the genre which enjoyed the greatest popularity with the public at that time and promised excellent marketing opportunities – that of song.2 With the tenors Josef Loritz and Ludwig Hess in particular, he found performing partners with whom he could give concerts of his songs in Munich, Leipzig, and Berlin, events which attracted a great deal of notice.

At first Reger had no connections in Munich either with institutions or socially. To cover his living costs, in addition to teaching private pupils he was dependent on concert fees and publishing royalites. Above all, as an incomer from the upper Palatine prov- ince, he had to assert himself against the establishment and create his own network of contacts. Directly after moving he made contact with important personalities in Munich musical life, such as Max Schillings, a committee member of the Allgemeinen deutschen Musikvereins (ADMV), with a request to help him secure opportunities of performing at music festivals and elsewhere. The relationship with Schillings remained problematic, especially since Schillings had certain reservations about Reger’s music because of its complexity.3 In general Reger had singled out the members of the “Munich School” around Schilling’s teacher Ludwig Thuille, the influential composition professor at the Akademie der Tonkunst,4 as his adversaries. In his concerts he lost no opportunity to perpetuate artistic conflict through the targeted juxtaposition of songs, and was accordingly perceived in the press as a musical “secessionist” (Wilhelm Kienzl, music review of Opus 66). By 1903 Reger himself also felt personally excluded from the circle of colleagues.5

At a Munich song recital in February 1902 Reger met Elsa von Bercken again, who had rejected him in 1899. With the security of a new publishing contract with Jos. Aibl and confidence in his productivity, Reger was now able to renew his courtship and guar- antee his future wife the financial security she desired. On 25 Oc- tober the civil marriage ceremony took place in Munich, and the church wedding (a Protestant ceremony) followed on 7 December in Bad Boll near Göppingen.

By early summer 1902 Reger was unhappy with the collaboration with Aibl, explored new publishing opportunities and at the end of 1902, signed an exclusive contract with the newly-founded publisher Lauterbach & Kuhn in Leipzig, who had already pub- lished his songs opp. 66 and 68. The initial euphoria on the part of the emerging publisher, who saw the ambitious Reger as an investment in the future, was quickly followed by disillusionment on both sides. For the songs which Reger offered the publisher as first works were of enormous modernity and disturbing originality, and so in no way corresponded with the economic calculations they had made.


1
“[...] he is one of the best accompanists I have ever heard. He accompanies his own songs inimitably, in an astonishing variety of ways in sound and expression. It is really delightful to hear how he melds to the singer, sensitively gives way to him and nevertheless supports him, how he suddenly, when it is necessary, takes the initiative, pushes forwards energetically and forces the singer to follow him, so that voice and piano blend into a beautiful unity.” (Unsigned review of a song recital on 4 January 1905 with the alto Clara Rahn, Vossische Zeitung dated 7 January 1905).
2
The genre of song, intended both for concert as well as domestic use, experienced a tremendous upturn around 1900 (see Thomas Seedorf: “Max Reger und die deutsche Liedkultur der Jahrhundertwende”, in Reger-Studien 10, pp. 13–28; see p. 14f.).
3
The music critic Martin Krause reported an encounter at an organ recital given by Karl Straube in the Kaim-Saal Munich in November 1901: “Max Schillings bumped into me in the audience throng after the memorable Reger recital. The Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein has given him the songs by Reger to evaluate. And he [...] tells me that these songs are the most complicated he has ever had to evaluate musically; that it is barely possible to work one’s way through the accumulation of enormous difficulties of various different kinds. He doubts that a singer will be found who is capable of solving everything which Reger demands; that apart from the composer himself, an accompanist exists who is capable of interpreting these musical oracles correctly.” ("Wochenübersicht", in ).
4
For information on the “Münchner Schule”, meaning the city’s artistic network and the close teacher-student connections, see Bernd Edelmann, “Königliche Musikschule und Akademie der Tonkunst in München 1874–1914”, in Geschichte der Hochschule für Musik und Theater München von den Anfängen bis 1945, ed. Stephan Schmitt, Tutzing 2005 (= Musikwissenschaft- liche Schriften der Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, Vol. 1), pp. 111–206; here: pp. 180–187 (chapter: “Ludwig Thuille und die Münchner Schule”).
5
“You can imagine [...], how thoroughly I am hated by this clique! Schillings at least remains civilized; but the way in which Thuille intentionally tries to run me down publicly everywhere – this way deserves no other description than “ignoble” or “mean”” (letter dated 25 and 26 March 1903 to Carl Lauterbach). – For information on the “case of Reger” see Edelmann, pp. 187–191.
About this Blogpost

Authors:
Knud Breyer, Stefan König

Translations:
Elizabeth Robinson (en)

Date:
3rd November 2022

Tags:
Module IISongsVol. II/3

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Citation

Knud Breyer, Stefan König: RWA Volume II/3 – Biographical context, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/rwa_post_00036, version 3.1.0-rc3, 20th December 2024.

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