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In the day and age of what one might call "event culture", the music of Max Reger is in an unfavourable position - this composer’s
works are highly complex, require more than one hearing and always represent a challenge to both musicians and audiences
alike. It is therefore almost symptomatic that the following wish, expressed by the conductor Fritz Busch, who chaired
the Max Reger-Gesellschaft (MRG) which was founded only a few moths after the composer’s death in 1916 and thrived
under his presidency in the 1920s, has yet to be fulfilled: "I still hope that the time will come when Reger shall be unanimously
appreciated everywhere and when he shall not have to contend himself with praise coming exclusively from some of the best."
(Neue Zürcher Zeitung, December 21. 1933)
Following the Second World War, at the time when Reger’s works where barely listened to and the composer himself, refusing
to conform to what was modern at that time and having chosen his own way, had become something of an outcast, Regers
widow founded the Max-Reger-Institut (MRI) in Bonn in 1947, which, in addition to his mainly academic assignments,
replaced, to a certain extend, the MRG, now defunct after social changes had been undergone in the Soviet-occupied zone.
Over the years, the MRI, just as the MRG had done, puiblished newsletters, organized various Reger festivals in places such
as Munich, Essen, Saarbrücken, Salzburg and Prague, collaborating with different partners and eventually establishing contact
all over the world with Reger researchers an performers of his music. As its complement, a larger institution has been created,
which, it is hoped, shall thrive worldwide: the Internationale Max-Reger-Gesellschaft e.V. (IMRG) which has set itself the task
of furthering interest in the part of both connoisseurs and music lovers, as well as of winning new friends
of Max Reger’s music, particularly among the younger generation.
Which aims has the Internationale Max-Reger-Gesellschaft set itself?
We wish to:
- generate interests in the master and his
complex œuvre
- hold festivals dedicated to Max Reger’s work
in alternating places
- organize master-courses for young musicians
- contact those interested about upcoming concerts
etc., recent publications and CD releases
- support financially, by means of donations,
the work of the Max-Reger-Institut as an international archival and research centre
What does the Max-Reger-Gesellschaft offer?
-regular updates by means of a regular
periodical, the Mitteilungen, and on the internet
-it encourages contact between Reger scholars
The Internationale Max-Reger-Gesellschaft is a meeting place for friends
of Reger’s music. Please, help the master’s very own wish come true, who said,
that: "The Reger case must become chronic!"
Sign up for membership to the IMRG!
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