A falling semitone, a falling third: in his last organ works Max Reger draws far-reaching connections out of the tersest of motifs. Vol. 3 of the complete edition brings together the Phantasie und Fuge in d-Moll op. 135b and the Sieben Stücke op. 145, both from 1915/16. Martin Schmeding continues his recordings at the historical Walcker organ in the Lutherkirche Wiesbaden. The programme draws attention to Reger’s handling of memory, of contrast and of the expressive power of familiar chorale melodies.
In op. 135b a shared motivic core binds the two halves of the work together. The fantasy strings together short episodes with broken chords, rising sequences, lyrical figures of lament and low-lying webs of voices. At the end the opening broken chords return and gather up the eventful course of the piece. The double fugue begins with a melancholy, striding subject in even crotchets. It is answered by an agile subject in 12/8 with continuous semiquaver figuration. Their combination issues in a broad chordal close whose tempo gradually slackens.
The Sieben Stücke op. 145 turn to the chorale as the bearer of changing moods. Four movements relate to the church year: Christmas, Passiontide, Easter and Whitsun. Trauerode, Dankpsalm and Siegesfeier, by contrast, belong to the context of the First World War. This difference of origin remains significant for the listener: lament, consolation and emphatic affirmation each receive a musical form of their own.
In the Trauerode, falling chromatic lines, agitated chords and a recurring bass figure lead to the chorale Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan. The Dankpsalm brings virtuoso runs and lyrical passages together in Lobe den Herren. Weihnachten traverses a particularly wide emotional range and draws in Ach, was soll ich Sünder machen, Vom Himmel hoch and Stille Nacht. The dense texture of Passion grows out of the chorale Herzliebster Jesu.
Ostern sets animated rejoicing against a quiet working-out of the chorale in a high register. In Pfingsten the bright harmonies of Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott are repeatedly shadowed by chromaticism until the closing chorale setting builds to its climax. After animated changes, the Siegesfeier leads into Nun danket alle Gott. The chorales thus appear in very different roles: as motivic origin, as point of repose or as the goal of a development.
With its flutes, string colours and French-influenced swell reeds, the Walcker organ of 1911 offers this music a wealth of gradations. The DSD production captures the interplay of instrument and church in stereo, 5.1 surround and 3D binaural stereo; the dummy-head version is intended for listening on headphones.