The sixth volume of the Max Reger Edition sets two early organ cycles against a later arrangement of his own piano music. The Drei Stücke op. 7 of 1892 and the Suite in e-Moll op. 16 of 1895 lead from clearly recognisable baroque models to an increasingly independent union of counterpoint, chorale and Romantic expression. The Präludium und Fuge in fis-Moll op. 82, Band IV, Nr. 1 und 2, add two terse pieces of 1912 to this perspective. Martin Schmeding plays the programme at the E. F. Walcker organ of 1884 in St. Annen Annaberg-Buchholz.
Opus 7 comprises a Präludium und Fuge in C-Dur, the Fantasie über Te deum laudamus and a Fuge in d-Moll. Broken triads and forward-driving movement in the first work recall Bach’s early organ music; interpolated suspension figures and free passages alter the initially familiar gesture. In the fantasy the Gregorian hymn is first presented in four parts. Variations follow, with contrary motion, ornamentation and fugatos. The closing double fugue works out its two subjects separately and inserts a short toccata before combining them.
The Suite op. 16 bears the dedication Den Manen Johann Sebastian Bachs — to the shade of Johann Sebastian Bach. Its first movement joins the dotted rhythm of a baroque overture to weighty chords and an extended triple fugue. In the second movement the ornamented melodic line of the Romantic character piece meets Protestant chorale quotations: Es ist das Heil uns kommen her, Aus tiefer Not and O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden. The alternation of solo line, dense texture and four-part chorale governs the course of the music here.
The scherzo-like Intermezzo sets against this a more agile play with registration and changes of manual; a lyrical trio interrupts the movement. A passacaglia forms the conclusion. Its figurative climaxes are articulated by slowing interpolations and a section in the major. The subject may also appear in the upper voice, accompanied by an independently led lower line. At the end the music returns to the gestures of the opening introduction.
The Präludium und Fuge in fis-Moll come from the piano collection Aus meinem Tagebuch and were transcribed for the organ by Reger himself. The lyrical prelude and the terse, contrapuntally worked fugue set a different measure beside the extended early cycles: the form contracts, while the union of cantabile line and polyphonic craft remains.
The Annaberg Walcker organ has mechanical action, three manuals and numerous flute, string and reed stops. In the restoration completed in 1995 the 55 surviving stops were preserved and additions carried out after historical models. The instrument sounds in the space of the late Gothic hall church of St. Annen. The DSD recording offers stereo, 5.0 surround and a 3D binaural version for headphones.