Reger’s “Five Humoresques“ follow in the footsteps of the nineteenth-century genre inaugurated by Robert Schumann’s “Humoresque“, op. 20. Occasionally Reger gives vent to high-spirited good humor, as when he quotes a hit tune from his own day, “Du bist verrückt mein Kind“ (“You’re crazy, my child”). The piano writing is imaginative, brilliantly pianistic, and harmonically rich. Our volume forms yet another addition to our series of Reger’s piano music.
Content/Details
- Level of difficulty (Explanation)
- Other titles with this level of difficulty
- Five Humoresques for Piano op. 20
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Preface
With his Humoresken op. 20, Reger continues a tradition established by Robert Schumann in the 19th century with the Humoreske op. 20, and continued by composers such as Stephen Heller, Edvard Grieg und Antonín Dvorák. The proximity to Schumann of some of the passages in Reger’s pieces is unmistakable. Reger’s first biographer, Adalbert Lindner, who witnessed the … 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. |
About the authors
Angename muziek, die wel einige eisen stelt aan de pianist, maar het idioom is toegankelijk genoeg om te motiveren. Door G. Henle Verlag in Urtext uitgegeven op de fraaie manier die we van dit huis gewend zijn.