マックス・レーガー: アルノルト・ベックリンによる4つの音詩、ロマンティックな組曲

レーガーの晩年の管弦楽作品2篇を収めたアルバム。「アルノルト・ベックリンによる4つの音詩」は画家ベックリンの絵画に想を得た作品。レーガーには珍しい標題音楽的作品ですが、4つの楽章からなり、彼が構想していたという交響曲への志向もうかがわれます。「ロマンティックな組曲」は詩人アイヒェンドルフの詩に触発された作品。両曲ともドビュッシーを思わせる官能的で情感豊かな響きがあります。
ハイメ・マルティンはスペイン生まれ。ロイヤル・フィルやロンドン・フィルの首席フルートを歴任した後に指揮に転じ、2013年から22年までイェヴレ交響楽団の首席指揮者を務めました。
ナクソス・ジャパン

The two Max Reger works on this 2025 Ondine release havent been commonly recorded, although Neeme Jarvi made a strong version of the Four Tone Poems after Arnold Bocklin, Op. 128, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra some years ago. Both that work and the Romantic Suite, Op. 125, boil Regers expansive style down to moderately concise dimensions. Arnold Bocklin was a Swiss artist, and Regers short tone poems, inspired by them, are quite vivid and require a certain flexibility that is tricky to achieve with a larger orchestra. The Gavle Symphony Orchestra, with 50-plus players, is small by gigantist German standards, but probably not far from many of the groups that performed Reger in his own time. Anyhow, conductor Jaime Martin gets an expansive sound out of the group that serves the music well. The Four Tone Poems are gloomy in "Der Toteninsel" ("The Isle of the Dead"), which would make a good if dour pairing with Rachmaninovs work on the same idea, but uncharacteristically festive in the final "Bacchanal," and the moods come through naturally in Martins readings. The opening Notturno in the Romantic Suite, Op. 125, is an unsung piece of orchestral night music. A strong recording that will fill holes on many orchestral shelves or hard drives, this album made classical best-seller lists in the summer of 2025. ~ James Manheim