RWA Online Blog RWA Volume II/11 – Reger's piano reductions

RWA Volume II/11 – Reger's piano reductions

Christopher Grafschmidt

1.

The piano reductions made by Reger of his own choral works with orchestral accompaniment were probably only intended for rehearsal and not as an alternative scoring for performance or as a version of equal value. At any rate no information from Reger survives which indicates a possible or planned performance with piano.1

In the sections where the choir is accompanied by the orchestra, Reger’s approach to arranging fluctuates between providing a reduction of the orchestral writing and doubling the choral writing. In the preludes, interludes and postludes, as well as in the passages with the choir, notes are found in the piano part which are not found in the orchestral writing and occasionally contradict with the choral writing.2 Reger also occasionally altered the slurring for the piano part.3 The differentiated dynamic marking of the orchestral writing was reduced to a practical compromise.

In the choral writing in the piano reductions there are occasionally differences from the original score, the reason for which is not obvious (see particularly Opus 71). On the other hand, alterations made in the choral writing during the proof-reading process are often not found in the piano writing (opp. 106, 112); where possible, these have been incorporated in the RWA. In addition, the orchestral score, of which the piano reduction is an extract, has a special significance for the edition in clarifying problematic passages.

A unique case is the Weihegesang WoO V/6. Reger did not prepare a complete reduction of the work, just excerpts for the solo alto and the choir, which are limited to the most essential in that they basically only take the respective sections into consideration. In the reduction for the choir, in addition in the piano just the preludes, interludes and postludes for the orchestra are reproduced, whereas the piano should probably play colla parte with the chorus parts. The orchestral passages in both reductions are also not identical throughout with regard to the notes and performance instructions. There is therefore no authentic piano reduction for the Weihegesang. The reduction included in the RWA has taken into account both of Reger’s manuscripts, which were never intended for publication.

1
On the other hand, see his comment on the instrumental Serenade op. 95: “Above all I will set about producing a playable practical piano reduction for 4 hands of the Serenade; […] the Serenade will be arranged such that it is 1.) fully suitable for piano four hands, 2.) will sound good. 3) will even become “house music” thanks to its easy performability! And the latter is indeed intended to become such a piano reduction for 4 hands.” (Letter dated 22 July 1906 to Lauterbach & Kuhn, as cited in Lauterbach & Kuhn-Briefe 2, pp. 163–166, here: p. 164). And with An die Hoffnung for alto and orchestra op. 124, he explicitly referred to an “edition with piano” (letter dated 22 May 1912 to Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen, as cited in Herzog-Briefe, pp. 236–238, here: p. 237), at least approving of such a performance.
2
See, for example, Opus 71, measures 57 and 172.
3
(See, for example, Opus 106, measures 52ff., left hand.
About this Blogpost

Authors:
Christopher Grafschmidt

Translations:
Elizabeth Robinson (en)

Date:
14th November 2022

Tags:
Module IIVol. II/11

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Citation

Christopher Grafschmidt: RWA Volume II/11 – Reger's piano reductions, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/rwa_post_00040, version 3.1.0-rc3, 20th December 2024.

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