Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher.
31 Facts About Max Reger
2.
Max Reger worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Leipzig University Church, as a professor at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig, and as a music director at the court of Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen.
3.
Max Reger had only one sister, Emma, after three other siblings died in childhood.
4.
When he turned five, Max Reger learned organ, violin and cello from his father and piano from his mother.
5.
From 1884 to 1889, Max Reger took piano and organ lessons from Adalbert Lindner, one of his father's students.
6.
In 1886, Max Reger entered into the Royal Preparatory School according to his parents' wishes to prepare for a teaching profession.
7.
In 1888, Max Reger was invited by his uncle Johann Baptist Ulrich to visit the Bayreuth Festival, where he heard Richard Wagner's operas Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg and Parsifal.
8.
In late summer of that year, Max Reger wrote his first major composition, the Overture in B minor, an unpublished work for orchestra with 120 pages.
9.
Max Reger eventually sought a career in music despite his father's concerns.
10.
In 1890, Max Reger began studying music theory with Riemann in Sondershausen, then piano and theory in Wiesbaden.
11.
Max Reger composed many songs including the love poems Sechs Lieder, Op.
12.
Max Reger moved to Munich in September 1901, where he obtained concert offers and where his rapid rise to fame began.
13.
Max Reger continued to compose without interruption, for example Gesang der Verklarten, Op.
14.
In 1907, Max Reger was appointed musical director at the Leipzig University Church, a position he held until 1908, and professor at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig.
15.
Max Reger completed the composition in 1909, premiered in 1910 simultaneously in Chemnitz and Breslau.
16.
In 1911 Max Reger was appointed Hofkapellmeister at the court of Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen, taking charge of music at the Meiningen Court Theatre.
17.
Max Reger continued with his master class at the Leipzig conservatory.
18.
Max Reger gave up the court position in 1914 for health reasons.
19.
Max Reger began to set the Latin Requiem but abandoned the work as a fragment.
20.
Max Reger died of a heart attack while staying at a hotel in Leipzig on 11 May 1916.
21.
Max Reger had been active internationally as a conductor and pianist.
22.
Max Reger produced an enormous output in just over 25 years, nearly always in abstract forms.
23.
Max Reger's work was well known in Germany during his lifetime.
24.
Max Reger wrote a large amount of music for organ, the most popular being the Benedictus from the collection Op.
25.
Max Reger recorded some of his works on the Welte Philharmonic organ, including excerpts from 52 Chorale Preludes, Op.
26.
Max Reger composed various secular organ works, including the Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue, Op.
27.
Max Reger pursued intensively Brahms's continuous development and free modulation, whilst being rooted in Bach-influenced polyphony.
28.
Max Reger was a prolific writer of vocal works, Lieder, works for mixed chorus, men's chorus and female chorus, and extended choral works with orchestra such as Der 100.
29.
Psalm and Requiem, a setting of a poem by Friedrich Hebbel, which Reger dedicated to the soldiers of World War I He composed music to texts by poets such as Gabriele D'Annunzio, Otto Julius Bierbaum, Adelbert von Chamisso, Joseph von Eichendorff, Emanuel Geibel, Friedrich Hebbel, Nikolaus Lenau, Detlev von Liliencron, Friedrich Ruckert and Ludwig Uhland.
30.
Max Reger thanked Hochstetter with the dedications of his piano pieces Aquarellen, Op.
31.
Max Reger had an acrimonious relationship with Rudolf Louis, the music critic of the Munchener Neueste Nachrichten, who usually had negative opinions of his compositions.