75th anniversary of death of Max Reger - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1991 - 100 Pfennig

Max Reger - born on March 19, 1873 in Brand / Opf., Two years after the founding of the German Reich and born in 1916, two years before his collapse - is representative of an epoch of revolutionary innovations. Art, music, science and technology changed at a breathtaking pace. The railroad increased its route network between 1840 and 1900, the automobile and the plane were invented, the telephone and telegram allowed for quick communication, and the gramophone, record, light bulb and x-ray apparatus gave new dimensions to listening and seeing. In world exhibitions, the new technical man celebrated. As a sensitive artist, Reger reacted vigorously to the changes. He took advantage of the possibilities of rapid locomotion, became the first self-promoter and travel artist of the 20th century, who composed under an unimaginable time pressure at 43 years left 146 opus numbers with opus numbers and as many works without opus number, plus about 350 editions of his own and In about 900 concerts, he conducted propaganda and piano playing propaganda for his works, arranging all concerts and traveling himself, wrote thousands of letters in his own right, taught and did not even rest during the holidays. After childhood in pastures / Opf. In 1889 Reger became a student of musicologist Hugo Riemann in Wiesbaden. After completing his training, he got into a deep life crisis, which made him flee to alcohol. In 1898 he returned ill to his parents' home. Here he succeeded in his breakthrough in three years to his own style with a series of great organ works (including chorale fantasies and free fantasies and fugues), in which he raised the organ for the first time since Bach again to a virtuoso concert instrument. Starting from baroque forms, he developed a highly expressive chromatic tone language, which unites all compositional achievements of the late 19th century with a Bach-oriented counterpoint. In 1901 Reger moved to Munich. In the now inaugurating »Kampfzeit« he rose within a few years to the next to Richard Strauss most played German composer. The focus of his work was chamber music and songs (including Bach and Beethoven Variations and Simple Sages). In 1902 he married Elsa von Bercken, 1906 he was appointed to the Academy of Music. But the quarrels with the prevailing at that time in Munich "New German School" caused him in 1907 to accept a call to Leipzig to the conservatory, where he turned mainly to the orchestral composition (including Hiller Variations, Piano Concerto). He has received numerous titles and honors (including Dr. med. Hc of the University of Berlin). From now on he was only able to compose in the summer months because of work overload. In 1911 he became court conductor of Duke George II of Saxony-Meiningen. In a very short time he regained the legendary Meininger Hofkapelle legendary level under Hans von Bülow. In March 1914, he suffered a nervous breakdown after a concert due to his inhumane work, which forced him to give up the Meininger position. The daily dealings with the orchestra had inspired him to numerous works, including the well-known Mozart variations. In 1915 he moved to the scholar city of Jena to compose in peace. But despite the war, he resumed his hectic journey soon. He died of heart failure on 11 May 1916 in a hotel room in Leipzig. His last completed work was a clarinet quintet. Galt Reger was a fascinating newcomer to his contemporaries, so his extensive work - with the exception of the organ works - was forgotten after his death. For some time, a new appreciation of Reger's path has broken down, in which the complexity of his complicated compositional style is no longer viewed as problematic, but as an almost seismographic reproduction of the tensions of his time. Reger's exact location on the threshold of the 19th to the 20th century unites tradition and progress and thus bridges the gap between the late romanticism of Brahms and Arnold Schönberg's Modern Age. (Text: Dr. Susanne Shigihara, Max Reger Institute Bonn)