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39-726: Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, a musical director at the Leipzig University Church , a professor at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig , and a music director at the court of George II, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen . Reger first composed mainly Lieder , chamber music, choral music and works for piano and organ. He later turned to orchestral compositions, such as

78-585: A genius.)" The documentary Max Reger – Music as a perpetual state, by Andreas Pichler and Ewald Kontschieder, Miramonte Film, was released in 2002. It was the first factually based film documentation about Max Reger. It was produced in cooperation with the Max-Reger-Institute . Max Reger: The Last Giant , a documentary film about the life and works of Max Reger, is included on a 6 DVD set entitled Maximum Reger released in December 2016 to mark

117-546: A music career. In late summer of that year, Reger wrote his first major composition, the Overture in B minor, an unpublished work for orchestra with 120 pages. Lindner sent the score to Hugo Riemann , who replied positively but warned him against Wagner's influence and to write melodies instead of motifs. Reger finished the preparatory school in June 1889. Also that year, he composed a Scherzo for string quartet and flute in G minor,

156-596: A setting of Psalm 100 for mixed choir and orchestra, for the 350th anniversary of Jena University . Part I was premiered on 31 July that year. Reger completed the composition in 1909, premiered in 1910 simultaneously in Chemnitz and Breslau . In 1911 Reger was appointed Hofkapellmeister (music director) at the court of Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen , also taking charge of music at the Meiningen Court Theatre . He continued with his master class at

195-569: A setting of a poem by Friedrich Hebbel , which Reger dedicated to the soldiers of World War I. He composed music to texts by poets such as Gabriele D'Annunzio , Otto Julius Bierbaum , Adelbert von Chamisso , Joseph von Eichendorff , Emanuel Geibel , Friedrich Hebbel , Nikolaus Lenau , Detlev von Liliencron , Friedrich Rückert and Ludwig Uhland . Reger assigned opus numbers to major works himself. His works could be considered retrospective as they followed classical and baroque compositional techniques such as fugue and continuo . The influence of

234-866: A three movement string quartet in D minor, and a Largo for violin and piano. At his father's request, he sent the latter two works to composer Josef Rheinberger , a professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich , who recognized his talents. Reger eventually sought a career in music despite his father's concerns. In 1890, Reger began studying music theory with Riemann in Sondershausen , then piano and theory in Wiesbaden . The first compositions to which he assigned opus numbers were chamber music and Lieder . A concert pianist himself, he composed works for both piano and organ. His first work for choir and piano to which he assigned an opus number

273-600: The Dominican Order settled in Leipzig and started building the Paulinerkirche in 1231 as their abbey church, within the city walls close to the Grimma Gate . It was built in the typical fashion of a church of a Mendicant order of the 13th century, with a choir and a nave with two aisles in the "Langhaus". The church was consecrated in 1240 by archbishop Wilbrand from Magdeburg to St. Paul . The church

312-639: The Rectorship of the university in October 1735. In 1778 Johann Adam Hiller was appointed music director and served until 1785. During the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, the church served as a camp for hostages and a military hospital. In the 19th century most of the remaining buildings of the monastery were demolished and replaced by the Augusteum , built from 1831 to 1836. The church had originally faced

351-731: The Welte Philharmonic organ , including excerpts from 52 Chorale Preludes, Op. 67 . He also composed various secular organ works, including the Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue , Op. 127. It was dedicated to Straube, who gave its first performance in 1913 to inaugurate the Wilhelm Sauer organ at the opening of the Breslau Centennial Hall . Reger was particularly attracted to the fugal form and created music in almost every genre, save for opera and

390-424: The symphony (he did, however, compose a Sinfonietta , his Op. 90). A similarly firm supporter of absolute music , he saw himself as being part of the tradition of Beethoven and Brahms . His work often combined the classical structures of these composers with the extended harmonies of Liszt and Wagner , to which he added the complex counterpoint of Bach . Reger's organ music, though also influenced by Liszt,

429-533: The 100th anniversary of Reger's death. The set was produced by Fugue State Films and in addition to the documentary includes excerpts from Reger's most important works for orchestra, piano, chamber ensemble and organ, with performances by Frauke May, Bernhard Haas , Bernhard Buttmann and the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt . Paulinerkirche, Leipzig The church survived the war practically unscathed but

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468-466: The Crossroads), for the birthday of the heir to the throne of the elector, and Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten! BWV 214 , for the birthday of the queen, a cantata which he used as a model for parts of his Christmas Oratorio , namely its opening chorus. Probably in 1735 Bach performed the homage cantata Die Freude reget sich, BWV 36b , to Johann Florens Rivinius on his appointment to

507-634: The Gothic altar, was rescued and temporarily installed at the Thomaskirche . It was moved to the new church (see below) in 2014. Since the 1990s the rebuilding of the church had been discussed. Among the people demanding a rebuilding was Nobel Prize-winning biologist Günter Blobel , arguing: This is much more than a church — this is a shrine of German cultural history, connected to the most important names in German cultural history. The new buildings at

546-737: The Latin Requiem but abandoned the work as a fragment. He composed eight motets as his Acht geistliche Gesänge für gemischten Chor (Eight Sacred Songs, Op. 138), embodying "a new simplicity". In 1915 he moved to Jena , commuting once a week to teach in Leipzig. In Jena he composed the Hebbel Requiem for soloist, choir and orchestra. Reger died of a heart attack while staying at a hotel in Leipzig on 11 May 1916. The proofs of Acht geistliche Gesänge , including " Der Mensch lebt und bestehet nur eine kleine Zeit ", were found next to his bed. Six years after Reger's death, his funeral urn

585-459: The Leipzig conservatory. In 1913 he composed four tone poems on paintings by Arnold Böcklin ( Vier Tongedichte nach Arnold Böcklin ), including Die Toteninsel ( Isle of the Dead ), as his Op. 128 . He gave up the court position in 1914 for health reasons. In response to World War I , already in 1914 he was planning to compose a choral work, commemorating those lost in the war. He began to set

624-537: The church was reopened after the Battle of Leipzig . The church was used for services and, from 1543 to 1768, also as Aula, an auditorium for academic functions. Samuel Rüling was music director in Leipzig, also for the Paulinerkirche, from 1610 to 1612, when he moved on to the Kreuzkirche in Dresden. Werner Fabricius was the first "Director musices Paulini" (director of music of St Paul) from 1656 to 1679. He

663-425: The city walls, which were torn down in 1785. The church faced the new representative square, later called Augustusplatz . Therefore Albert Geutebrück erected in 1836 a Neoclassical facade, replaced by a Neo-Gothic facade of Arwed Roßbach in 1897. Felix Mendelssohn conducted his oratorio on the church's patron saint , Paulus , in the first performance in Leipzig on 16 March 1837. The composer's funeral

702-738: The dedications of his piano pieces Aquarellen , Op. 25 , and Cinq Pièces pittoresques , Op. 34 . Reger had an acrimonious relationship with Rudolf Louis , the music critic of the Münchener Neueste Nachrichten , who usually had negative opinions of his compositions. After the first performance of the Sinfonietta in A major, Op. 90 , on 2 February 1906, Louis wrote a typically negative review on 7 February. Reger wrote back to him: " Ich sitze in dem kleinsten Zimmer in meinem Hause. Ich habe Ihre Kritik vor mir. Im nächsten Augenblick wird sie hinter mir sein! " ("I am sitting in

741-590: The funeral ode Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl, BWV 198 , requested by the university to mark the death of Christiane Eberhardine , the wife of August II the Strong . Bach performed his motet Der Geist hilft unser Schwachheit auf, BWV 226 , first on 21 October 1729 in a memorial service for Johann Heinrich Ernesti (1652-1729), rector of the Thomasschule . Probably in 1733, Bach performed his cantatas Laßt uns sorgen, laßt uns wachen, BWV 213 (Hercules at

780-420: The latter can be heard in his chamber works which are deeply reflective and unconventional. In 1898 Caesar Hochstetter , an arranger, composer and critic, published an article entitled "Noch einmal Max Reger" ("Max Reger once again") in a music magazine ( Die redenden Künste 5 no. 49, pp. 943 f). Caesar recommended Reger as "a highly talented young composer" to the publishers. Reger thanked Hochstetter with

819-535: The most popular being the Benedictus from the collection Op. 59 and his Fantasy and Fugue on BACH , Op. 46 . While a student under Hugo Riemann in Wiesbaden , Reger had already met the German organist, Karl Straube ; their association as colleagues and friends began in 1898, with Straube premiering many of Reger's organ works, such as the Three chorale fantasias, Op. 52 . Reger recorded some of his works on

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858-1031: The order was dissolved, and on 22 April 1544 Moritz von Sachsen signed the donation of the former monastery (i.e. the church and the adjunct monastery buildings) to the university. The Paulinerkirche was inaugurated as a Protestant university church by Martin Luther on 12 August 1545. Luther's sermon on this occasion is extant in his handwriting, the so-called Zerbster Handschrift ("Eine predigt || D. Martini || Lutheri, newlich zu Leip= || tzig gethan. || Wittemberg. || Durch Hans Lufft. || 1545."), printed in Nuremberg in 1545 ("Ein nütze Lehr, unnd || schöne vermanung, || Wie Gott durch das H. Euangeli= || on uns heimgesuchet, unnd wir || uns dagegen halten sollen. || Gepredigt zu Leipzig, || durch || D. M. Luther || M.D.XLV. ... Gedruckt zu Nürm= berg durch Johan vom Berg, || und Ulrich Newber, wonhafft auff dem Newen= || baw bey der Kalckhütten. Anno 1545.), and printed in Leipzig in 1817 when

897-554: The parish church of the city. In 1886, Reger entered into the Royal Preparatory School according to his parents' wishes to prepare for a teaching profession. In 1888, Reger was invited by his uncle Johann Baptist Ulrich to visit the Bayreuth Festival , where he heard Richard Wagner 's operas Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Parsifal . This left a deep impression and made Reger decide to pursue

936-845: The popular Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart (1914), and to works for choir and orchestra such as Gesang der Verklärten (1903), Der 100. Psalm (1909), Der Einsiedler and the Hebbel Requiem (both 1915). Born in Brand, Bavaria , Reger was the first child of Josef Reger, a school teacher and amateur musician, and his wife Katharina Philomena. The devout Catholic family moved to Weiden in 1874. Max had only one sister, Emma, after three other siblings died in childhood. When he turned five, Reger learned organ, violin and cello from his father and piano from his mother. From 1884 to 1889, Reger took piano and organ lessons from Adalbert Lindner, one of his father's students. During this time, he frequently acted as substitute organist for Lindner in

975-468: The smallest room of my house. I have your review before me. In a moment it will be behind me!"). Another source has the German composer Sigfrid Karg-Elert as the targeted critic of this letter. Arnold Schoenberg was an admirer of Reger's. A letter he sent to Alexander von Zemlinsky in 1922 states: "Reger...must in my view be done often; 1, because he has written a lot; 2, because he is already dead and people are still not clear about him. (I consider him

1014-493: The university administration, the Paulinerkirche was dynamited to make way for a redevelopment of the university, eventually carried out between 1973 and 1978. Protestors against the blasting operation were arrested. A plaque at the site was unveiled 25 years later, on 30 May 1993. An A-frame sculpture in the dimensions and at the location of the former facade at the Augustusplatz was a memorial. The Paulineraltar ,

1053-479: The university and their relatives were buried in the church, commemorated on epitaphs of artistic value, people such as Johann Christoph Marci (law), Christian Friedrich Franckenstein (historian) and Benedikt Carpzov (1595-1666, law), whose epitaph was restored in 2011. Johann Tetzel , a Dominican preacher famous for selling indulgences , was buried in 1519. After the Protestant Reformation

1092-431: The university's main campus are inspired by the form and shape of the old church. The newly built heart of the university includes a room for common prayer and regular religious services, located exactly at the place of the former church. The whole complex has a double function as a church (using the historical name Universitätskirche St. Pauli - University Church St. Paul) and as an assembly hall (Aula). The short name for

1131-509: The whole building with both functions is Paulinum . The first service in the new church was held on 6 December 2009 (the second Sunday in Advent ), and it included a performance of Bach's cantata Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland , BWV 61 . 51°20′20″N 12°22′48″E  /  51.338923412°N 12.3799610138°E  / 51.338923412; 12.3799610138 Gesang der Verkl%C3%A4rten Too Many Requests If you report this error to

1170-803: Was Drei Chöre (1892). Reger returned to his parental home in Weiden due to illness in 1898, where he composed his first work for choir and orchestra, Hymne an den Gesang (Hymn to singing), Op. 21 . From 1899, he courted Elsa von   Bercken who at first rejected him. He composed many songs including the love poems Sechs Lieder , Op. 35 . Reger moved to Munich in September 1901, where he obtained concert offers and where his rapid rise to fame began. During his first Munich season, Reger appeared in ten concerts as an organist, chamber pianist and accompanist. Income from publishers, concerts and private teaching enabled him to marry in 1902. Because his wife Elsa

1209-577: Was cantor in Leipzig from 1723, he also performed "festal" (holiday) services at the Paulinerkirche in 1723-25, while Görner was director for regular Sunday services. Bach possibly performed a new cantata already for Pentecost, Wer mich liebet, der wird mein Wort halten, BWV 59 , on 16 May 1723, before he began his tenure as cantor at the Thomaskirche and the Nikolaikirche two weeks later, Sunday after Trinity . On 17 October 1727 Bach performed

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1248-490: Was a divorced Protestant , he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. He continued to compose without interruption, for example Gesang der Verklärten , Op. 71 . In 1907, Reger was appointed musical director at the Leipzig University Church , a position he held until 1908, and professor at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig . In 1908 he began to compose Der 100. Psalm (The 100th Psalm), Op. 106,

1287-454: Was dynamited in 1968 during the communist regime of East Germany . After the reunification of Germany, it was decided to build a new university church on the site in the shape of the former church. A new building, the Paulinum (formally: "Aula und Universitätskirche St. Pauli", i.e. "Assembly Hall and University Church St. Paul"), was built on the site beginning in 2007. In 1229, friars of

1326-563: Was held in the church on 7 November 1847. In 1907 Max Reger was appointed music director of the university. The church survived the war practically unscathed, unlike the Augusteum next to it. On 4 April 1968 the Leipziger Universitätschor performed Bach's St Matthew Passion , conducted by Hans-Joachim Rotzsch . On 30 May 1968, under the communist regime, and after a decision by the SED -led city administration and

1365-562: Was part of a larger complex of medieval buildings which together formed the Dominican monastery of Leipzig. Since the foundation of the University of Leipzig in 1409, the church was closely related to the university. A tradition of "Universitätsgottesdienst" (university service) started then, with preachers appointed by the university since 1419. The altar from the 15th century is now in the Thomaskirche. Several faculty members of

1404-639: Was provoked by that tradition. Some of the works for solo string instruments turn up often on recordings, though less regularly in recitals. His solo piano and two-piano music places him as a successor to Brahms in the central German tradition. He pursued intensively Brahms's continuous development and free modulation , whilst being rooted in Bach-influenced polyphony. Reger was a prolific writer of vocal works, Lieder , works for mixed chorus, men's chorus and female chorus, and extended choral works with orchestra such as Der 100. Psalm and Requiem ,

1443-487: Was succeeded by Johann Schelle (1679–1701) and Johann Kuhnau (1701–1722). An organ at the western wall was first heard on 2 November 1679. In 1717 the new organ by Johann Scheibe was inspected by Johann Sebastian Bach in his function as an organ consultant. Johann Gottlieb Görner was the organist from 1717. His comment was: "nicht gnugsam rühmen und loben können, sonderlich deren Raren Register" ([he could] not praise enough, especially its unusual stops). When Bach

1482-540: Was the cousin of Hans von Koessler . Reger produced an enormous output in just over 25 years, nearly always in abstract forms. His work was well known in Germany during his lifetime. Many of his works are fugues or in variation form , including the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart based on the opening theme of Mozart 's Piano Sonata in A major, K. 331 . Reger wrote a large amount of music for organ ,

1521-603: Was transferred from his home in Jena to a cemetery in Weimar. In 1930, on the wishes of Reger's widow Elsa, his remains were moved to a grave of honour in Munich Waldfriedhof . Reger had also been active internationally as a conductor and pianist. Among his students were Joseph Haas , Sándor Jemnitz , Jaroslav Kvapil , Ruben Liljefors , Aarre Merikanto , Sofie Rohnstock , George Szell and Cristòfor Taltabull . He

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