In the winter of 1889/90 Reger eagerly pursues private studies and prepares for his studies with Hugo Riemann with the latter’s textbooks (including the solution of 1000 problems in the theory of harmony). The appointment of Riemann from Hamburg to the Sondershausen Conservatoire enables him to “do my studies with him” (letter from 28 December 1889 to August Grau).

From April to July, Reger is Hugo Riemann’s student in music theory at the Princely Conservatoire in Sondershausen, where he immediately joins the counterpoint class; he also receives private piano lessons from Riemann. In Sondershausen he is intellectually and musically stimulated in a variety of ways, visisting all of the Loh concerts (named after the concert hall where they were performed, the Loh Hall near a former Loh forest), finds a friendly reception in the Riemann house and is systematically introduced to the works of Johannes Brahms and Johann Sebastian Bach. He joins forces with other Riemann students to form the Montsalvat knighthood (fig.), which becomes notorious for its pranks.

In Riemann’s entourage, Reger enters the Wiesbaden Conservatoire on 20 September as student no. 172 with the main subjects piano and music theory and is simultaneously made a teacher for piano and organ in order to finance his studies and to alleviate financial problems of the parents resulted by a piano purchase. Reger is invited for lunch and dinner by the Riemanns and spends almost his whole leisure time there, including the Christmas days.