OTTERLOO conducts Reger (1915-1957) - PASC707

Max Reger's music was very popular in the Netherlands, and Reger's concert tour in March 1916 was but a small part of a larger mosaic that reflects the great interest in his music. Willem Mengelberg and a large number of other musicians made a name for themselves as performers of Reger’s music; during the Second World-War, the Netherlands occupied by the Nazis, Eduard van Beinum conducted the Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam in recordings of the Ballet Suite and the Mozart Variations (for Polydor); Eugen Jochum recorded the Serenade in G for Telefunken, and Hermann Abendroth the Böcklin Suite in a radio broadcast.

The last recorded performance of a Reger work with the Concertgebouworkest during the war was the Violin Concerto in 1944, with the soloist Georg Kulenkampff, who had caused a sensation a few years previously with the premiere performance of Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto in Berlin; nowadays Kulenkampff’s fame is marred by his close association with the Nazis. Unfortunately, the recording under Willem van Otterloo is not quite complete: While the first movement is unaltered, a few short passages in the second (bars 43–53) and third movement (bars 421–455 and 507-542) were deleted and the transitions recomposed. In one letter, though feeling it was impossible to cut his work substantially, Reger had showed himself open to minor cuts – but it is not known whether these ever took place and who edited those heard here.

Willem van Otterloo, who directed the Residentie Orkest from 1949 to 1973 and who extensively recorded with his orchestra for Philips, remained loyal to Reger as a conductor and recorded the Mozart Variations and the Romantic Suite with the Residentie Orkest Den Haag in the mid-1950s; the performance of the latter work in particular sets special accents through its tense elegance and is one of the best interpretations of the work to date.

As a special bonus, we offer five small pieces by Reger for violin, some with piano - including the very first known shellac recording of a piece by Reger, from 1915. Issay Barmas and Adolf Busch were in close contact with Reger and gave concerts with him; the pianist in the Barmas performance is not given on the Polyphon disc label. Both performers later produced their own editions of some of Reger’s music.

Dr. Jürgen Schaarwächter
Max-Reger-Institut, Karlsruhe