In his numerous collections of small character pieces, the imaginative Max Reger gradually developed a style of his own, in the shadow of the Romantic epigones. His music is characterised by modulating harmonies with a simultaneous recourse to classical formal tropes. So it is very worthwhile to take a closer look at the “Ten Small Concert Pieces” op. 44 from 1899, which display astonishing harmonic boldness. Ten short concert pieces of moderate difficulty, with titles such as “Album Leaf”, “Burletta”, “Once upon a time”, or simply “Capriccio” form a series and introduce the pianist to Reger’s piano oeuvre. The composer’s original fingerings make this carefully edited Urtext edition especially interesting.
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Preface
Max Hehemann, in his biography of Reger (Munich, 1911, p. 53), remarked that, whether we like it or not, “Reger simply happens to be complicated.” There is much to suggest that Reger was also of this opinion, and it is certainly a view that subsequent commentators have tended to share. Reger’s music is seen to be difficult, and in fact it usually does not make things easy … more
Critical Commentary
About the composer

Max Reger
Late-Romantic composer who combines a chromatic tonal language with Baroque and Classical forms, thus anticipating 1920s neoclassicism.
1873 | Born in Brand (Upper Palatinate) on March 19, the son of a teacher. First piano lessons from his mother. |
1888 | After a visit to Bayreuth (for Meistersinger and Parsifal), decides on a career in music. |
1890–93 | Studies with Hugo Riemann at the conservatory in Wiesbaden, composes chamber works. Thereafter he endeavors to publish his own works as a freelance composer, albeit with multiple failures. |
1898 | Return to his parents’ home in Weiden. Composition of organ works: choral fantasies, “Fantasy and Fugue on B-A-C-H,” Op. 46 (1900); Symphonic Fantasy and Fugue (“Inferno”), Op. 57. |
1901–07 | Living in Munich. |
1903 | Publication of his “On the Theory of Modulation,” causing Riemann to feel attacked because Reger espouses a different understanding of the role of chromatics. “Variations and Fugue on an Original Theme,” Op. 73. |
1904 | Breakthrough with his first performance for the Allgemeine Deutsche Musikverein (General German Music Association). First volume of his “Simple Songs” for voice and piano, Op. 76; String Quartet in D minor, Op. 74, one of the most significant works in that genre at the beginning of the century. |
From 1905 | Instructor at Munich’s Academy of Music. “Sinfonietta” in A major, Op. 90. |
1907–11 | Music director and professor of composition at the University of Leipzig. Orchestral work “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Hiller,” Op. 100. |
1909 | “The 100th Psalm,” Op. 106, his most popular choral work. |
1911–14 | Director of the royal court orchestra of Saxe-Meiningen. |
1912 | “Concerto in the Old Style,” Op. 123. Orchestral song “An die Hoffnung” (“To Hope”), Op. 124. |
1913 | “Four Tone Poems after A. Böcklin” for large orchestra, Op. 128; “A Ballet Suite,” Op. 130. |
1914 | “Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart,” Op. 132 |
1915 | He resides in Jena. Late compositions. |
1916 | Death in Leipzig on May 11. |