Suites for cello solo (Reger)

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The three suites for cello solo (op.131c) by Max Reger were composed in 1915 and are among the most difficult solo literature for this instrument.

construction

For an explanation of the sentence names, see also: Tempo markings in music .

Suite No. 1 in G major

  1. Prelude (Vivace)
  2. adagio
  3. Fugue (allegro)

Suite No. 2 in D minor

  1. Prelude (Largo)
  2. Gavotte (Allegretto)
  3. largo
  4. Gigue (Vivace)

Suite No. 3 in A minor

  1. Prelude
  2. Scherzo (Vivace)
  3. Andante con variazioni

background

Max Reger does not keep the suite in the strictly baroque sense, but as a free sequence of three, at most four movements of different characters. It always begins with a prelude in order to set the movement flowing with a barely interrupted sixteenth note sequence.

The gavotte and the gigue in Suite No. 2 belong to the traditional master movements of the suite, but he breaks this form with a largo , which seems like a wistful retrospective self-talk.

With Max Reger, solo literature for strings experienced a renaissance that would continue to have an effect for half a century in the works of Hindemith , Bartók , Honegger and others.

Recordings / sound carriers