2016 marks the 100th anniversary of Max Reger’s death, and several record companies have responded in turn with competing editions of the composer’s complete music for clarinet and piano. The three sonatas count among Reger’s more imaginative, least long-winded chamber works, and provide ample opportunity for contrapuntal shading and fanciful ensemble interplay.
Clarinetist Robert Oberaigner and pianist Michael Schöch channel their strong individual assets toward finely honed teamwork. They bring deft interplay and astute textural balances to the Op. 49 No. 1 Prestissimo assai finale while assiduously and effortlessly slipping in and out of the humorous Op. 49 No. 2 Vivacissimo’s rapid tempo fluctuations. The Op. 107 Adagio’s gorgeously dovetailed phrase taperings reveal the full measure of Oberaigner’s smooth yet slightly tangy sonority and prodigious breath control, although I lean toward the fuller-bodied animation of clarinetist Janet Hilton’s Naxos recording.
In addition, the Op. 49 No. 1’s opening Allegro affanato benefits from faster tempos and more robust, dynamically contrasted work from clarinetist Stephan Siegenthaler and pianist Kolja Lessing on Oehms Classics, a two-CD release that also includes an excellent performance of Reger’s Clarinet Quintet. On the other hand, the latter team’s logy, heavy-handed rendition of the little G minor Tarantella can’t touch the MDG duo’s airy lilt.
So far as the sonatas go, Oberaigner/Schöch are more nuanced than Kay/Klibonoff (Bridge), better engineered than Conti/Bambaci (Brilliant Classics), and more assertive than Odom/Samolesky (Albany). If Ib Hausmann (Hänssler) remains my first choice in the absence of Karl Leister’s 1995 Reger release for Camerata, there’s much to be said for MDG’s engineering, where the surround-sound SACD layer adds noticeable ambient depth to the standard two-channel playback’s concert hall realism. In all, this release is a solid contender in an increasingly crowded field.
