Reger, Max: Sonatinen

Max Hehemann stated once, “Reger just simply happens to be complicated”. This sums up the usual and for the main part accurate assessment that is prevalent in the music world of the works of one of the most important German composers at the turn of the twentieth century. The Piano Sonatinas op. 89 are a marked exception to the Reger rule. Reger, whose writing for the piano was often virtuosic and dense, greatly retracted this here, favouring instead a wonderful airiness and transparency. Nevertheless, unlike a sonatina by Clementi for instance, these four Reger Sonatinas are not easy to play (according to our levels of difficulty, the easiest, the Sonatina in D major [No. 2], is considered 5/6 – that is medium level of difficulty.)