RWA Volume I/3 – Fantasias and Fugues, Variations, Sonatas, Suites II; Biographical context
Alexander Becker, Stefan König, Christopher Grafschmidt, Stefanie Steiner-Grage
1. 1901–1906
After several years of intense composing, Reger felt increasingly restricted in the isolated atmosphere of Weidens. That is why on 1 September 1901 he moved from there to Munich, where totally new prospects opened up for him. He now had direct contact with influential people such as Max Schillings, the chairman of the Music Committee of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein (ADMV). However, by the following year, this initial enthusiasm gave way to a certain disillusionment, as the concert programs contained “too much of the soporific” 1. At the same time, Reger took private pupils and made increasing use of the opportunities offered to him as a song accompanist and chamber musician to promote his own works. His resulting improved financial situation encouraged him to propose again to Elsa von Bercken, who finally accepted and became his wife on 25 October 1902.
Even though the critics were full of praise at the premiere of his euphonius Clarinet Sonata op. 49 no. 1, this changed with Reger’s developing confrontations with the representatives of the Munich School around Max Schillings and Ludwig Thuille, as well as through a lifelong running battle with the music critics. Rudolf Louis’ review of Karl Straube’s 1903 Basel performance of Reger’s Inferno-Fantasia op. 57 is typical of these: “And what we actually encounter with Reger resembles a tonal and psychological perversity of sound, as a result of which he wallows in cacophony, in the musically ugly, while others pursue purely sensuous, p l e a s i n g sounds.” (Münchner Neueste Nachrichten) Reger returned the favor with the Violin Sonata in C major op. 72 and its unambiguous motifs of S-c-h-a-f-e (sheep) and A-f-f-e (monkey). His intensive preoccupation at this time with Hugo Wolf and his artistic legacy may have contributed to the fact that Reger unswervingly pursued his course and was not willing to make any concessions.
In 1904 things initially seemed to be calmer: with the first volume of Schlichte Weisen op. 76 Reger was able to appease Lauterbach & Kuhn, by now his main publisher; he became secretary of the newly-founded local association of the ADMV – that is, he worked with Schillings and Thuille – and his sensational appearance with Henri Marteau at the Frankfurt Tonkünstlerfest of the ADMV led to numerous engagements further afield and a life spent “on the train”.2 With the Bach Variations for piano op. 81 and the Beethoven Variations for two pianos op. 86, which he himself played often and willingly, he was even able to win over sworn opponents.
The fact that Reger, at the instigation of Felix Mottl, succeeded Josef Rheinberger at the Königliche Akademie der Tonkunst on 1 May 1905, naturally represented a considerable gain in prestige for him, even though he gave up the position after a year because of disagreements with the rest of the teaching staff. His first symphonic work, the Sinfonietta op. 90, was performed twenty times in the first season following its premiere at the beginning of October 1905. Reger himself conducted the work in February 1906 in Heidelberg, beginning his career as a conductor. Yet whilst he enjoyed great success on concert tours, fronts in Munich hardened so that he fell out with Schillings and, in January 1906, resigned from the ADMV. A breakdown in a Berlin concert at the beginning of April forced him to take a period of rest. In the winter season, however, extended tours took Reger away again as far as St. Petersburg – thanks to twenty-five Reger recitals abroad, he was able to escape from Munich at times.3 His appointment as university music director and professor at the Leipzig Conservatoire at the beginning of 1907 gave him the welcome opportunity of freeing himself from the situation in Munich which had become intolerable.
2. 1913–1916
Within a year of his move from Leipzig to Meiningen, despite his extremely benevolent and cultured employer Duke Georg II, Reger again felt restricted and misunderstood. He sought recognition on concert tours with the Meininger Hofkapelle (see Konzertsaison 1912/13), for which he not only completed numerous song orchestrations (Schubert, Brahms, Grieg, Wolf), but also original orchestral works such as the Böcklin Suite op. 128 and the popular Mozart Variations op. 132. The latter were composed in 1914 during a stay at a sanatorium in Merano, followed by a convalescence holiday in Schneewinkl which he needed because of a breakdown.
Directly after the outbreak of World War I Reger composed the Telemann Variations for piano op. 134, followed by the Hymnus der Liebe for baritone and orchestra op. 136. Both works were not related to the general euphoria about the war. After two sacred works (opp. 137 and 138), Reger composed the Vaterländische Ouvertüre op. 140, dedicated “Dem deutschen Heere” (the German armed forces), but immediately following this, he set about writing a latin Requiem (WoO V/9) which he wanted to dedicate to the fallen soldiers. Convinced by Karl Straube that he was “not equal to the subject matter” 4, he abandoned the idea that with this Requiem he would write his major oratorio work, and fell into a deep creative crisis which he was only to overcome by moving again (in March 1915 to Jena).
In Jena Reger found unaccustomed peace for a few months, reflected in the Violin Sonata in C minor op. 139, which he proclaimed as the beginning of his “free, Jena-esque style” 5. He again spent the following winter season performing in German and Dutch concert halls, and in weekly teaching at the Conservatoire in Leipzig, which he still undertook. Reger died in Leipzig in the night of 10–11 May 1916 following a day’s teaching. At the time he was working on an Andante and Rondo capriccioso in A major (WoO I/10) dedicated to Adolf Busch and intended as a counterpart to the Violin Concerto in A major op. 101, which was perceived as problematic.
About this Blogpost
Authors:
Alexander Becker, Stefan König, Christopher Grafschmidt, Stefanie Steiner-Grage
Translations:
Elizabeth Robinson (en)
Date:
4th May 2012
Tags:
Module IVol. I/3
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Citation
Alexander Becker, Stefan König, Christopher Grafschmidt, Stefanie Steiner-Grage: RWA Volume I/3 – Fantasias and Fugues, Variations, Sonatas, Suites II; Biographical context, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/rwa_post_00048, version 3.1.0-rc3, 20th December 2024.
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