A goody
At long last Max Reger’s complete organ works are available again in one box set. As a goody for all Reger fans the complete organ arrangements of works by Johann Sebastian Bach are also part of this edition.

Appealing
The discs 1 - 12 present an overview of the complete organ works of Max Reger in manageable units. The numerous shorter chorale settings appear together with the longer works. For example, organ chorales precede the extended chorale fantasias and introduce the song themes. A chronologically ordered systematics was avoided on purpose. It is precisely the side-by-side placement of works from different periods that appeals to the listener and allows her or him to compare different periods and genres. Each disc has its special eye-catching theme: »B-AC-H«, »Christmas«, »Dirge«, »Symphonic Fantasia«, etc. Even so, an attempt has been made to honour cyclical connections between works without, however, tiring the listener with an academic systematization of the works.

Addition
On the discs 13 & 14 Rosalinde Haas is presenting the complete recording of Max Reger’s organ arrangements from 1902-3 of fifteen piano works by Bach (toccatas, fantasias, and preludes and fugues from The Well-Tempered Clavier) along with Reger’s Course for Trio Playing on the Organ (Inventions by J. S. Bach) of 1903. Reger’s course assigns the lower part in Bach’s two-part inventions to the pedal and always adds a new middle part for the left hand to Bach’s overall compositional design.