Description on Youtube:
Max Reger
Suites (3) for cello, Op. 131 (1915)
Suite No. 1 in G Major
dedicated to Julius Klengel
Suite No. 2 in D Minor (13:21)
dedicated to Hugo Becker
Suite No. 3 in A Minor (33:21)
dedicated to Paul Grümmer
Guido Schiefen, cello
Description by Blair Johnston [-]
Max Reger's Opus 131 of 1914 - 1915 is really four opuses in one, each of which explores a different kind of music for solo string instrument (or in one case string duo). The third of these four sub-opuses, three Suites for cello solo, Op. 131c remains today the best known of the Opus 131 music. As Germany's leading composer for the organ at the turn of the twentieth century, Reger quite naturally was drawn in musical directions that echo those taken by the greatest German organ composer of all, J.S. Bach; that Reger should as a result show the same interest in solo string music that the Baroque master did is no surprise at all. The three Cello Suites, Op. 131c, are entirely original works, but anyone familiar with Bach's Six Suites for unaccompanied cello will nevertheless immediately feel at home with the Reger pieces.
The three suites are in G major, D minor, and A minor, and have three, four, and three movements, respectively. Each Op. 131c suite begins with a Präludium; in the case of the Suite No. 1 in G major, it is a quick (Vivace) movement, with constant sixteenth notes lightly basted with chromaticism; in Suite No. 2 in D minor, it is an espressivo Largo that blossoms from a declamatory single-line style into richer, two-voice stuff in the middle; the Präludium of Suite No. 3 in A minor is thickly written and filled with parallel sixths and thirds -- sonorities that Reger clearly loved, since they are found throughout the suites.
After the opening movement, the type and organization of the movements varies considerably from suite to suite. In No. 1 in G major there is a lush C major Adagio in the second movement slot, and then a 150-bar-long, Fugue for a finale. The Fugue is built from a rhythmically steady subject and is for the most part written in just two contrapuntal voices. The four-movement Suite No. 2 in D minor has a Gavotte, a Largo, and a Gigue following the opening Präludium; the light, airy Gavotte is a real charmer, but the heart of the suite is the sumptuously melodic Largo in B flat major, whose tune insists, colorfully, on the pitch E natural. For the final suite, No. 3 in A minor, Reger provides a second-movement Scherzo and a tricky Andante con variazioni finale, the latter containing a 25-bar theme and five variations in which some serious virtuoso ground is covered, from rapid string crossings and quick scales to melodious double stops.
Note that the three Suites for cello solo, Op. 131c, and the three Suites for viola solo, Op. 131d, are in fact entirely different music, not arrangements of the same material for different instruments.
Publisher info:
Berlin: N. Simrock, 1915. Plates 13698-13700
Copyright:
Public Domain
