1. Weiden

In January, Reger appears in Berlin as a lied accompanist for Josef Loritz and is warmly received by Otto Leßmann. In March, Karl Straube plays five of Reger's major organ works in a concert in Munich, which once again bring in good reviews for the composer who is present. In June, by arrangement of Philipp Wolfrums, Straube performs Reger's Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H, Op. 46, at the Tonkünstler Assembly of the ADMV, achieving national attention; Reger cannot participate due to lack of time. In July, the Ulm organist Karl Beringer gives his first major Reger concert. With the organ pieces, Op. 59, a connection with the publishing house of C.F. Peters begins.

Reger misses musical stimulation and feels increasingly restricted in Weiden, so he puts out feelers to Munich. He manages to persuade his parents to change location and, after his father’s early retirement, moves with them and his sister Emma to Munich-Haidhausen on 1 September; As a farewell gift, he gives Adalbert Lindner numerous manuscripts of early or discarded works that have lost their meaning for him.

Max Reger and  at the foot of the Ochsenkopf (Fichtelgebirge), 14 August 1901. – Max-Reger-Institut, Karlsruhe.
Max Reger and Adalbert Lindner at the foot of the Ochsenkopf (Fichtelgebirge), 14 August 1901. – Max-Reger-Institut, Karlsruhe.

2. Munich

In Munich, Reger immediately makes contact with important personalities of the local musical life, including Max Schillings, the chairman of the music committee of the ADMV. »Schillings, Hausegger, Braungart are magnificent people – so they are my main contacts next to Loritz!« (letter of 4 December to Adalbert Lindner). He is working again on an organ concerto (WoO I/7), which is to be performed at the next Tonkünstler Festival but does not go beyond the planning stage. At first he is an avid concert-goer (also as a critic), but reduces his visits the following year because he is too preoccupied with music in his mind and the concert programmes “contained too much of the soporific”1. In November, Karl Straube gives another highly acclaimed Reger evening in Munich with the Three Chorale Fantasias, Op. 52, and the Fantasia and Fugue on B-A-C-H, Op. 46.

As a lied accompanist and chamber musician, Reger finds unrestricted recognition. His extensive concert activity which now begins and continues throughout his life, contributes significantly to the engangement with his works and to their success. Reger takes on some private students in theory and piano playing, whose number grows strongly in the following years.


1
letter from Reger to Theodor Kroyer, 20 November 1902, Staatliche Bibliothek Regensburg, shelfmark: IP/4Art.714.

Postal items from this year whose sender or addressee is Max Reger.


Images from the Max Reger Foto Gallery that originate from this year and have a direct reference to Max Reger.


Reference

Max Reger Biography – 1901, in: Max-Reger-Portal, www.maxreger.info/biography/1901, Max Reger Biography Data, V. 3.1.0, last check: 18th April 2024.