Max Reger - Violin Sonata No. 8; Suite Op. 103a (Ulf Wallin; Roland Pöntinen)

Information

Composer: Max Reger

• (01) Violin Sonata No. 8 in E minor, Op. 122
• (05) Suite for Violin and Piano in A minor, Op. 103a

Ulf Wallin, violin
Roland Pöntinen, piano

Date: 2007
Label: cpo

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Review

Looking for other recordings to compare with these, I was surprised to find so few violin sonatas on my voluminous Reger shelf; glances at a 1998 Bielefelder Katalog and arkivmusic.com confirmed a similar paucity. They are among Reger’s least played and recorded music, the nine sonatas so rare that they have not achieved an agreed-upon numbering. A complete recorded set (by four violinists) on the DaCamera label (first on LPs but now available in Germany on CDs) labeled them Nos. 1–8, adding a 6a. What is it that so limits their appeal to both performers and listeners? Their length, for one thing: the op. 122 Sonata in E Minor—the op. 22 on this disc’s back page is a typo—runs nearly 40 minutes (as does op. 139), way past the limits of violin sonatas by those timid miniaturists Beethoven and Brahms. Truth to tell, Reger’s are not very interesting, even to a devotee who is long past the bugaboo of his weird chordal progressions. Although the sonatas look Classical on the surface (the four movements of op. 122 are marked Moderato, Vivace, Adagio, Allegretto espressivo), their internal structures are vague. Reger meanders even more than usual. There are some lovely themes, particularly at the start of the 13-minute finale, but they eventually get lost amid the aimless proceedings. As to why this happens in Reger’s violin sonatas more than those for cello, I cannot say, except that each of the latter lasts about 25 minutes.

The op. 103a Suite is one of its kind; op. 103b consists of two violin and piano “Sonatinas” counted above as No. 6 and 6a. Although this Suite’s six movements are Praeludium, Gavotte, Aria, Burleske, Menuett, and Gigue, it is not one of Reger’s works “in the Olden Style.” Gigue does start that way, but it soon turns into a happy-go-lucky, brief Regerian fugue. Any four of the movements (in the right order) would make a convincing sonata, and no one of them is six minutes long. Whether the shorter span tightened Reger’s attention, or vice versa, the result is a charming work filled with pleasantries, one that holds our interest from start to finish.

Wallin and Pöntinen specialize in out-of-the-way repertoire, at least on cpo. They do a fine job here; one can’t fault them for the longueurs of Reger’s Sonata. The recorded sound, from Deutschlandradio Studio 10 (Bonn?) is a bit vague, a slight comedown from cpo’s consistently high standard. They have also recorded the op. 139 Sonata, on another cpo disc, but Nachum Erlich and Siegfried Mauser give equally fine performances of both sonatas on one 78-minute Hänssler Classic disc, 93.110. In this case, it’s the filler that wins my recommendation.

-- James H. North, FANFARE

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Max Reger (19 March 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, organist, and academic teacher. Born in Brand, Bavaria, he studied music theory in Sondershausen, then piano and theory in Wiesbaden. Reger produced an enormous output in just over 25 years, nearly always in abstract forms, but few of his compositions are well known in the 21st century. He first composed mainly Lieder, chamber music, choral music and works for piano and organ, and only turned to orchestral compositions later. Among Reger's students were Joseph Haas, Jaroslav Kvapil, Rudolf Serkin and George Szell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Reger

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Ulf Wallin is a Swedish violinist who was born in Växjö and grew up in Linköping. He studied at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. Wallin has particular interest in contemporary music and close collaboration with composers such as Alfred Schnittke and Rodion Shchedrin. He has made numerous recordings for radio and television, and recorded over 40 CD recordings for BIS, cpo, EMI and BMG. Wallin is professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" Berlin since 1996, and a member of the Royal Music Academy since 2015.
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulf_Wallin

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Roland Pöntinen (born 4 May 1963 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish pianist and composer. He studied at the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in Stockholm with Gunnar Hallhagen, then with Menahem Pressler, György Sebok and Elisabeth Leonskaya at the Indiana University, United States. Pöntinen made his debut in 1981 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and has since then performed with orchestras in Europe, USA, Korea, South-America, Australia and New Zealand. His solo record debut was on BIS in 1984. He has since made over 50 records as soloist, accompanist and with orchestra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_P%C3%B6ntinen
http://rolandpontinen.com/

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