Reger : Der Einsiedler - Requiem (Live)

Album review

This selection of spiritual but mostly secular late Romantic vocal music offers a program that wouldn't have been heard in the music's time, with two related choral pieces by Max Reger flanking Mahler's Rückert-Lieder and the Psalm 23 (the only religious work of the bunch) of Alexander Zemlinsky. The intent on the part of the Kammerorchester Basel and Camerata Vocale Freiburg under Winfried Toll is to strike and maintain the inward mood suggested by the title (an Einsiedler is a hermit, a recluse), taken from one of the two Reger works and thence from poet Gerd Müller-Hornbach. Does it work? Arguably yes: for moody, late-night listening, the album may fill the bill, but it succeeds even more in its constituent parts. The secular Requiem by Reger and the title choral piece were published together and are linked in outlook. The performance of the Rückert-Lieder by tenor Christoph Prégardien is gentle (even in the midst of the jangled nerves of some of the pieces in this set) and in many places revelatory; his reading of the famous Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen is hypnotically beautiful. Prégardien has sacrificed some of the power to advancing age, but none of the sensitivity. As for the mixed choral-orchestral forces, this pair of rather mysteriously connected Reger choral works are not often performed and deserve wider exposure. An intriguing and original release.

© TiVo

Details of the original recording : Recorded live at Martinskirche Basel (Switzerland), 28.–29.09.2016