Album insights
In an age that highly values "authentic" performances, it is important to remember that modern research provides only a limited insight into actual Baroque practices. This focus on meticulous scholarly details regarding Baroque ornamentation, tempos, ensemble size, and other considerations in the 21st century might lead purists to look down upon renowned performances like Handel's Messiah with the Huddersfield Choral Society and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Malcolm Sargent. Meanwhile, Mozart's reorchestration of this work, including clarinets, is viewed today as a valuable and insightful document enriching our historical understanding rather than being inappropriately colored by the trends of a later period. There can be no definitive rule for when the line between anachronism and historical significance is crossed, but it is encouraging that contemporary attitudes welcome the art of piano transcriptions from Baroque source material as a valuable and thought-provoking addition to modern recital repertoires.
Liszt appears to have been the first to consider Bach's organ works as suitable candidates for transcription, sensing the spiritual presence and legacy of his predecessor in Weimar upon his arrival there. Shortly after his initial visit in 1841, he began creating transcriptions, completing his arrangements of the six Preludes and Fugues BWV543–548 by 1850. Approximately twenty years later, Liszt added another isolated transcription of Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV542.
Liszt's transcriptions differ from his "paraphrases" in that they strive to transfer a work as faithfully as possible from the original to the conditions of another instrument. In contrast to paraphrases that involve free treatment and thematic transformations of the original material, Liszt's Bach transcriptions reflect respectful restraint, partly due to the incorporation of pedal voices into music for the hands alone. Liszt did not aim to expand the sound to match that of organ registers by doubling the piano line in the higher octave, as this would necessitate more notes and demand limitless delicacy in its execution, emphasizing the essential role of the sustaining pedal.
This approach, exemplified by Reger's great contemporary Ferruccio Busoni's Bach transcriptions focusing on pedal-tinted timbres, remains faithful to the original while practically considering the effect of octave doubling created differently on the organ. This also raises significant questions regarding tempo as transcribers and performers, by including the conditions of an organ performance, seek to imitate the necessary grandeur in a parallel, nearly metaphorical sense, if not a literal one.
Several pianists and composers, including Samuel Feinberg, Eugen d'Albert, Carl Tausig, Ignaz Friedman, and Camille Saint-Saëns, ventured into similar territories. Among these eminent figures, apart from Saint-Saëns, Reger stands out as the only one equally skilled on both piano and organ. Despite the achievement of mastery not being a prerequisite for successful transcription, Reger's deep understanding of Bach's counterpoint from his training as an organist and studies under the theorist Hugo Riemann allowed him to excel. Reger's notable, eclectic Four Tone Poems, op. 128, inspired by Arnold Böcklin's paintings and completed in 1913 in Meiningen, underscore his diverse creativity and multi-faceted intelligence.
For professional organists, there is no compulsion to transcribe Bach's original organ text for performance, and perhaps even in the piano transcription, there remains a sort of "Urtext" mentality, sometimes displaying a more literal than lateral approach—in a sense, more Bach than Busoni. Reger, through his bold transcription of Prelude and Fugue in D major, BWV532, undeniably enters Busoni's realm, demonstrating his approach with notable sobriety and restraint in other examples like some of the chorale preludes.
Markus Becker presents Reger's transcriptions of selected chorale preludes, framing them with the three more extensive pairs of Prelude and Fugue and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor on these CDs. The distinction between Preludes and Toccatas may not hold much significance, as Bach himself might not have titled these pieces. The authorship of Prelude and Fugue in D major and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor is uncertain. Matters may become complex, as in the case of the D minor work, due to the absence of an autograph and the possibility that handed down sources might already be transcriptions of works by other composers. Reger's selections range from ornate, expansive creations like Valet will ich dir geben and Komm, Heiliger Geist to profound introspection exemplified in An Wasserflüssen Babylon and O Mensch, bewein' dein' Sünde gross, as well as the relatively academic rigor of Nun danket alle Gott and the fleeting single sheets of Ach wie nichtig, Durch Adams Fall, and Das alte Jahr vergangen ist.
In striving to balance linear and polyphonic clarity using the full expressive resources of the piano and virtuosic technique, Markus Becker respects the historical significance of Bach's original ideas and Reger's transcriptions as documents of their time.