Max Reger (1873-1916) was born at a time marked by profound changes, when every aspect of human experience—social, political and cultural—was called into question. This was reflected in classical music written around the turn of the century, as composers negotiated the tension between tradition and modernity. Paul Hindemith called Reger “the last of the giants” and said his own work would be “inconceivable” without Reger’s influence. Schönberg considered him “a genius.” In Reger’s short lifetime, he composed over 1,000 works in most genres, yet he is less familiar to audiences than his contemporaries including Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Ravel, Richard Strauss and…
