Reger: Variations and Fugue on a theme of Johann Adam Hiller Op. 100

“Mention of Reger's name in 'informed' circles is likely to produce a conditioned reflex: 'Fugue!' In his day he was the central figure of the 'Back to Bach' movement, but he was also a romantic who relished all the expressive potential of the enormous post-Wagnerian orchestra. Chandos exploits the open spaces of the Concertgebouw, forsaking some healthy transparency for an extra spatial dimension; a more sumptuous glow.
With Järvi's instinct for pacing in late romantic music, and his great orchestra's evident delight in the copious riches of the discovery, for the Hiller Variations, this disc is very tempting.
Anyone who warms to Vaughan Williams's TallisFantasia will immediately respond to the 'Hermit playing the violin', the first of the four Böcklin tone-poems; Debussy's 'Jeux de vagues' from La mer was obviously in Reger's mind for the second poem 'At play in the waves'; and the 'Isle of the dead' is Reger's no less doom- and gloom-laden response to the painting that so captured Rachmaninov's imagination. The final painting, 'Bacchanal', was described as a Munich beer festival in Roman costume – an entirely fitting description for Reger's setting of it!” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Schuricht was a great conductor, but one almost always forgets it. Why? These performances of Brahms and Reger lack idiosyncrasy yet are tremendous. Boult is a similar case, giving Beethoven's Grosse Fuge a towering reading.” BBC Music Magazine, March 2008 *****

“The resuscitation of Schuricht's reputation goes on apace here…. With the LSO on its best form of the time, the Brahms Tragic Overture if given a superb performance, properly lying between the lyrical and dramatic. Schuricht was taught by Reger, and obviously loves the Hiller work. He teases out all the delicacies in the scoring while maintaining a firm grip on their rather diffuse structure.” Gramophone Magazine, September 2007

“I'm happy to report that this new Naxos disc is most excellent: the playing of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is both sensitive and energetic; the interpretations seem totally sympathetic to Reger's colourful idiom; and the digital sound is more than acceptable.” Gramophone Magazine