On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” after being put through the contrapuntal ringer by Max Reger, we’ll definitely be Busched – as in Adolf Busch, cofounder of the Marlboro Music Festival. Get ready to breathe a collective sigh of relief with Busch’s lighthearted “Divertimento for 13 Solo Instruments.”
First, there are times when Reger’s music can be beyond rigorous. In fact, it might be better termed “Regerous.” Perhaps the craziest exemplar of vertiginous Teutonic counterpoint, he could write organ music of such density that the individual voices get lost in a tangle, deep inside a knot, somewhere in an impenetrable thicket.
However, on two pianos, it all seems to make sense. We’ll hear a 1977 performance of Reger’s “Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue,” Op, 96, performed by Marlboro stalwart Luis Batlle and a 19 year-old Yefim Bronfman.
Reger composed a lot of fugues and sets of variations, seeing himself as the heir of Beethoven and Brahms. But it is the Baroque masters he most closely resembles, in his own gargantuan, overcooked way. Therefore, we’ll open the hour with one of the Brandenburg Concertos of Johann Sebastian Bach, conducted by Pablo Casals.
Despite the fact that in most of his photos Reger looks like he’s got a mouth full of sauerkraut, he actually had a sharp sense of humor. His most famous retort to a critic came in the form of a letter written in 1906. It reads: “I am sitting in the smallest room of my house. I have your review in front of me. Soon it will be behind me.” Reger, you rascal. Why couldn’t you get more of that into your music?
I hope you’ll join me for performances of works by Bach, Reger, and Busch, from the legendary Marlboro Music Festival, this Wednesday evening at 6:00, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page
The many moods of Max Reger (1873-1916)