This is volume 6 in one of the most ambitious Reger projects on record.
Koch-Schwann seem to receive little attention for their efforts and conversely
may well suffer because their publicity seems pretty low key. Examine for
example the pages of Fanfare and Gramophone. Also you will look in vain for
a Koch website listing their complete catalogue. This can be contrasted with
the excellent websites for Citadel, Crystal, Chesky and Reference Recordings.
Koch's Reger catalogue is large and the company is obviously trying to give
it new shelf-life and selling power by rebadging it. This has extended to
providing single depth colourful covers to go over the top of the original
CD booklets.
One of the strengths of the project is the commitment to a single
orchestra/conductor team for the orchestral works. Horst Stein made some
cracking recordings for Decca in the 1970s with the Suisse Romande Orchestra.
I think especially of the LPs of Sibelius's Nightride, Pohjola's
Daughter, En Saga and the rather slighted Lemminkainen
Legends.
Reger's reputation (rather unfairly) precedes him. The reputation tells us
that the music will be academic, heavy with organ textures, and a bit boring.
What is the truth? Well MY truth is that there is much here to enjoy. Some
of the movements are rather longwinded but most is eloquent and even affecting.
The Concerto with winsome contributions by the two violinists is a cross
between Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and the big-band old-fashioned
approach to playing Purcell and Handel - A sort of Goossens brand of band
megalomania or Elgar's orchestration of Handel. The central movement is very
touching and the Corelli-like gambollings of the two violinists are memorable.
The Sinfonietta is big, running to 50 minutes. The giant first movement
is a Schubertian hike through the countryside but with splashes of Bruckner
as well. Nothing very dramatic and perhaps a bit overlong but even so the
composer does not put a foot wrong. The second movement sandwiches a surprisingly
lovely liturgical moderato between a rather off-putting dry grand dance in
two segments. The larghetto is lovely and takes us to the high alpine pastures
in summer - no ascent just a quiet saunter through the lush grass. This recalled
Strauss's Alpine Symphony and a little of Othmar Schoeck's
Summernight. The final allegro con spirito is just that but not
desperately interesting.
Horst Stein is now with the Bamberg SO and has been reliably applying inspiration
and eloquence to the Reger project. Any critical comments are I am sure down
to the music rather than these faithful and dedicated performances. I would
like to hear more and especially the violin concerto which I remember trying
some 15 years ago and not returning to. Time to try again. I also hope to
review the CPO recording of the Pfitzner violin concerto.
This is a generously filled disc, well recorded (spotless wide-range FM quality)
and well annotated by Ekkehart Kroher (German, English, French - 3pp each
language).
A good solid disc.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Bamberg SO/Horst Stein (Peter
Rosenberg, Harald Orlovsky (violins) -
Concerto)
