The fourth instalment of the Max Reger Edition brings together the early chorale fantasias on Ein’ feste Burg ist unser Gott op. 27, Freu’ dich sehr, o meine Seele! op. 30 and the two works op. 40 on Wie schön leucht’t uns der Morgenstern and Straf mich nicht in deinem Zorn!. Reger wrote them in 1898 and 1899. In each fantasia, the respective hymn text shapes the musical dramaturgy.
The first two works form a contrasting pair and are connected motivically: an idea from Ein’ feste Burg reappears in op. 30 in the minor mode. The fanfare-like gesture and final fugato of the first work are answered there by chromatic density and a triple canon. Op. 40 likewise places two differing expressive worlds side by side, from spacious intensifications to swift, darker shifts of mood.
Martin Schmeding performs on the Wilhelm Sauer organ of 1908 in the Erlöserkirche Bad Homburg. Its remote division lets sound emerge at the other end of the church, in the chancel. Thus the relationship between chorale line, registration colour and space acquires its own presence.