What is the greatest recording of Reger's op 121 quartet?

[Mandryka]

Well . . . what's the best?

[Herman]

well.... how many are there?

I like the Mannheim recording on MDG.

It's an amazing piece.

[Mandryka]

Hi Herman, good to hear from you.

It's Berne that I find myself listening to most for some reason. Is that first movement neo-classical?

Recordings

Berne
Manheim
Doric
Koeckert
Reger
Schönberg
Stross
Tel Aviv

[Herman]

Yeah, good to hear from you, too.
The Koeckert is the live one from Salzburg on an Orfeo disc?
I have that as well.

The closest Reger comes to neo-classicism would perhaps be the magnificent clarinet quintet. However, no matter how you look at it, Reger is so over the top romantico modernist, even in his blessed Jena period.

I remember playing a recording of this piece to a musician who visited my place and who'd never heard Reger's music and she almost fainted from all the chromaticism.
(Yeah I know, it sounds like that scene in Some Like It Hot.)

[Cato]

Here is a group called the Stross Quartet: unfortunately spread over 4 screens! 

Many moons ago, the VOX recording with The Reger Quartet was on my turntable: I had nothing with which to compare it, but thought the work was wild!

[Christo]

Who's Reger?

[quickly looking for a safe haven]

[AnotherSpin]

Well . . . what's the best?

It's good that you started this topic. I'm not sure if I had listened to Reger's Opus 121 before. I listened to it today and was quite impressed in a good way. The performance was by the Berner Quartet. Right now, I'm listening to Opus 109 performed by the Melos Quartet.

[Herman]

Many moons ago, the VOX recording with The Reger Quartet was on my turntable: I had nothing with which to compare it, but thought the work was wild!

Those were three LPs, weren't they? I used to have those in the seventies.
I guess my love for Reger's chamber music started there.

[Mandryka]

One which stands out - not necessarily outstanding but just a distinctive interpretation - is the first movement of op 121 from the Schönberg Quartet.

[Herman]

With the Stross I get the feeling they maybe performed the piece too many times, over the decades. It sounds a little tired.
The Koeckert from Salzburg I always liked. They're telling a story.

[Herman]

One which stands out - not necessarily outstanding but just a distinctive interpretation - is the first movement of op 121 from the Schönberg Quartet.

I have seen them in concert many times, however their 121 is too symphonic for me.

[Mandryka]

I have seen them in concert many times, however their 121 is too symphonic for me.

Symphonic is exactly the word I was going to use for it when I made that post.

[Herman]

Symphonic is exactly the word I was going to use for it when I made that post.

The guy playing the viola, Guittart, is excellent (he was the de facto leader of the band), and it is as if he comes more to the fore in this wider sound production.

[Cato]

Those were three LPs, weren't they? I used to have those in the seventies.
I guess my love for Reger's chamber music started there.

Yes, it was a VOX box!  I had a good number of those: Rachmaninoff and Scriabin piano works.

[Herman]

Yes, it was a VOX box!  [...] and Scriabin piano works.

Ponti, right?

Perhaps vinyl companies were dumping those records before the digital age came, but I remember getting loads of discounted vinyl in the second half of the seventies.

[Mandryka]

Listening to the piano quartet this morning, Trio Lirico on Audite.

And last night I found what seems like a lovely lieder CD, Andreas Weller (tenor)/ Götz Payer.

[Herman]

Listening to the piano quartet this morning, Trio Lirico on Audite.

There are two piano quartets, both in minor keys. The a minor 133 has a largo movement that is perhaps the most successful attempt at a big hymn-like tune, which appears in many of Reger's triple digit opuses (there's one in the Hiller Vars, too).

[Mandryka]

There are two piano quartets, both in minor keys. The a minor 133 has a largo movement that is perhaps the most successful attempt at a big hymn-like tune, which appears in many of Reger's triple digit opuses (there's one in the Hiller Vars, too).

Yes, op 133 is what I was listening to. That symphonic treatment of the op 121 quartet from Schoenberg Qt is very hymnal in the slow movement I think.

Talking of hymns, I think some of the orchestral songs are really moving -- the FiDi recording.  The Wagner influence!   

[Cato]

Ponti, right?

Perhaps vinyl companies were dumping those records before the digital age came, but I remember getting loads of discounted vinyl in the second half of the seventies.

Michael Ponti, yes!  I was buying them in the 1960's and early 1970's, and the prices were good!

Of course, that was back when gasoline was 30 cents a gallon, and when it zoomed to 65 cents, during the "Oil embargo," everyone thought it was awful!   

Anyway, VOX offered some excellent performances for a lower price, as did EVEREST: the latter label offered  e.g.Mahler's Ninth Symphony with Leopold Ludwig conducting.

[Herman]

Yes, op 133 is what I was listening to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUGLW85TYBw

A live Mitschnitt of a first rate performance of the a minor piano quartet, with Mark Gothoni on violin and Hartmut Rohde on alto.