Max Reger - Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 & 5 (Ulf Wallin; Roland Pöntinen)

Information

Composer: Max Reger

• (01) Violin Sonata No. 5 in F sharp minor, Op. 84
• (04) Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor, Op. 1

Ulf Wallin, violin
Roland Pöntinen, piano

Date: 1999
Label: cpo

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Review

PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****

Few composers can surely have written a more accomplished first opus than Reger. The first violin sonata, written at the age of seventeen, is remarkable for its masterly command of the medium, its memorable thematic ideas and its strong sense of purpose – a quality that is not always evident in the mature Reger. Of course the imposing figure of Brahms looms large over its inspiration, but nonetheless Reger's own idiosyncratic stylistic fingerprints are already perceptible, particularly in the charming Scherzo, and in the broadly paced Adagio whose emotional gravitas recalls Beethoven's Op. 96 Sonata. Ulf Walin and Roland Pöntinen deliver a highly committed performance fully substantiating the claim made by Reger's teacher Hugo Riemann that the sonata is a work of genius. After receiving such an accolade, it's little wonder that Reger continued to demonstrate a special affection for the violin sonata, completing no less than eight further works for this combination. In the emotionally enigmatic Fifth, dating from 1905, the musical language is far more complex harmonically, and the structure is unusual in that a frisky scherzo forms a brief interlude between two lengthy movements, the latter of which is a fine set of variations culminating in an extended fugue. In lesser hands, music of such textural complexity could easily fall apart at the seams, but Walin and Pöntinen are resolute, presenting a totally lucid account of the work.

-- Erik Levi, BBC Music Magazine

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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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