A new recording of two major Reger cycles, by a fast-emerging British piano talent. This new recording presents two pianistic masterworks by Max Reger: the Bach Variations Op. 81 and the cycle Träume am Kamin. Played by British pianist Eden Walker.
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Composer: Max Reger
Artist: Eden Walker (piano)
‘To fathom his all-powerful might, no human may accomplish’ – this is the text, from a duet in Bach’s Cantata BWV128, which Reger takes as the subject of his Bach Variations, and it may fairly be advanced that Reger accorded Bach a comparably divine status. At the age of just 31, Reger had by this stage assimilated not only Bachian counterpoint but its transformation through the ears and imaginations of Schumann and Brahms and others, and he proceeds to treat the theme with astonishing freedom, testing the technique of the performer while reaching for the limits of the theme’s musical possibilities over the course of 14 variations. The cycle concludes with a mighty fugue – or fugues, on separate subjects (of Reger’s own devising, eventually welded with the Bach theme). In his booklet essay, Eden Walker remarks that the final bars are ‘some of the most colossal and victorious of any in the entire piano repertoire.’
By contrast, as a salutary demonstration of Reger’s versatility, the Träume am Kamin present him at his most relaxed and intimate, and anyone who has found it hard to warm to Reger will surely find in this cycle a delightful entry-point to an often forbidding catalogue. ‘Dreams by the Fireside’ – Reger’s knotty chromatic harmony still underpins the progress of these Romantic sketches, but now disguised by a touch of the ‘lateness’ that comes over many artists towards the end of their lives or careers, whether or not they were aware of it. This cycle was Reger’s final piano cycle before his death in 1916, aged 41, and the mood of the cycle is perhaps also marked by a necessary escapism from the violent bloodshed around him.
Born in 1995, Eden Walker has become a specialist in the ultra-virtuoso end of Romantic piano writing at the hands of composers such as Alkan, Busoni and Godowsky (and Reger). Based in Hamburg, he now teaches at the Staatliche Jugendmusikschule, as well as furthering his own studies and giving concerts across Germany and the UK.
Tracklist:
Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Bach, Op. 81:
0:00:00 I. Thema. Andante (quasi adagio)
0:01:49 II. Variation I. L’istesso tempo
0:03:16 III. Variation II. (sempre espressivo ed assai legato)
0:04:36 IV. Variation III. Grave assai
0:07:55 V. Variation IV. Vivace
0:09:03 VI. Variation V. Vivace
0:10:40 VII. Variation VI. Allegro moderato
0:12:06 VIII. Variation VII. Adagio
0:14:15 IX. Variation VIII. Vivace
0:15:27 X. Variation IX. Grave e sempre molto espressivo
0:18:42 XI. Variation X. Poco vivace
0:19:44 XII. Variation XI. Allegro agitato
0:20:52 XIII. Variation XII. Andante sostenuto
0:23:24 XIV. Variation XIII. Vivace
0:24:16 XV. Variation XIV. Con moto
0:26:04 XVI. Fugue – Sostenuto –Più moto – Adagio
Träume am Kamin, Op. 143:
0:35:02 I. Larghetto in B-Flat Major
0:38:36 II. Con moto in E-Flat Major – Andante
0:41:14 III. Molto adagio in A Major
0:44:55 IV. Allegretto grazioso in E major – Andante – Tempo primo
0:47:17 V. Agitato in B Minor
0:50:08 VI. Poco vivace in A-Flat Major – Molto sostenuto – Tempo primo – Andante
0:52:18 VII. Molto sostenuto in D Major
0:56:30 VIII. Vivace (Etüde) in C Major
0:57:41 IX. Larghetto in E-Flat Major
1:01:46 X. Vivace (Humoreske) in D Minor – Meno mosso – Vivace – Un poco meno mosso – Adagio
1:04:24 XI. Andantino in G Minor
1:08:05 XII. Larghetto in D Major (Studie)
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