“The golden age of organ music in Reger’s life has long since passed” — so begins a prophecy made by the Dortmund organist Walter Fischer in 1910, which nevertheless foretold a sequel. During his Leipzig years Max Reger had indeed written nothing new for the organ, despite his closeness to Karl Straube; only from 1913, as Kapellmeister in Meiningen, did he take up the genre again. In the booklet Martin Schmeding describes what these late works share: a mildness of form and harmony and that “self-restraint” in compositional means which Reger named in numerous letters. The registrations too, with their higher pitches, show that the ideal sound of the organ was at this time moving away from a purely symphonic style.
The impulse for Op. 127 came in 1913 with a commission for a work to inaugurate the new Sauer organ in the Centennial Hall in Wroclaw. In the midst of his work for the Meiningen orchestra, Reger at first had a large piece for organ and orchestra in mind, but then settled on a solo work in a form he had tried several times. He described its character to Fritz Stein: “classically transparent; I am opposed to all extravagance”. Not all the reviewers of the première followed him in this; Bernhard Paumgartner missed emotional warmth behind the work’s architecture and saw “bizarre harmonic masses” piling up with no discernible goal. Even the reports on its duration vary between 30 and 40 minutes, possibly because Karl Straube chose moderate tempi in the huge hall.
Short in relation to the whole, the Introduction acts as a door-opener: chordal blocks and virtuosic passagework at the outset, then softly dotted octave leaps over chromatic harmony, until a renewed crescendo is cut off by the same pianissimo motifs. The theme of the Passacaglia holds tonal ductus and chromatic line in balance; out of it grow increasingly virtuosic variations that lead through dialogues across several manuals to running figures and masses of chords. The ornamental and coloristic element is striking: many of the variations could readily be imagined orchestrated. The Fugue is among the most extensive in Reger’s organ output and stands close to the fugue of Op. 57, down to its ironic and humorous side; clear compartmentalisation produces an almost symphonic structure that draws the main theme and a lyrical countersubject together into a closing apotheosis.
As a counterpart, the Nine Pieces Op. 129, Reger’s last cycle of shorter organ pieces, were written in the same year. He set them down during the summer holiday of 1913 in Kolberg and dedicated them to his Hamburg friend Hans von Ohlendorff; they have the effect of miniatures or album leaves. The pedal mordent at the start of the Toccata in D minor recalls earlier introductions without seeking their complexity, and the theme of the following Fugue in D minor already anticipates the later fugue subject of Op. 135b. The Canon in E minor and the Melodia in B flat major stand close to older character pieces, while the playfully pianistic Capriccio in G minor sinks ever further into lyrical melancholy. Over an ostinato of only two bars the Basso ostinato in G minor unfolds a rapid intensification that collapses after a brief climax; the Intermezzo in F minor shifts constantly between four and three beats to the bar. The Prelude in B minor, with its bright arpeggiated chords, recalls Robert Schumann’s piano writing, before the Fugue in B minor sharpens its descending chromaticism through repeated notes.
The Lutherkirche in Wiesbaden was built between 1908 and 1910 following the “Wiesbaden programme”, which places altar, pulpit and organ, the three elements of worship, one above the other at the centre of the space. The Walcker organ Op. 1570 of 1911 combines a specification grounded in German late Romanticism with elements of the Alsatian organ reform associated with Albert Schweitzer, Émile Rupp and the Walcker firm: repeating mixtures, reeds designed for blending, a powerful swell division with partly French-inspired reeds and, as a forward-looking feature, a cornet with a seventh. First restored in 1986/87, the instrument was returned to its original state by the firm Klais (Bonn) for its centenary in 2011. Martin Schmeding recorded the two works there on 22 and 23 April 2014, with Annette Fabriz as registrant. The recording was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA); the magazine Diapason gave it “5 Diapason of the Month”.