On paper and digitally

With this volume, Carus-Verlag continues its scholarly-critical edition of Reger's complete works for organ. The source situation for the chorale preludes is not quite as complicated as for the larger organ works. Editions that go back more or less directly to the first edition and have not been distorted by "corrective" editorial interventions are still commercially available; modern Urtext editions of some works also exist. Nevertheless, the new edition also offers a masterly editorial achievement here: in addition to the extraordinarily beautiful volume of music with introductory texts to the works, a DVD is also included, which contains not only the musical text of the edition but also the surviving sketches, any engraver's models, the first print (particularly valuable in the case of the individually surviving chorale preludes - usually magazine supplements) and other sources. This allows textual differences in the sense of the critical report to be traced down to the last detail. In addition, there is a wealth of background information on the works, letters, reviews, lexical information on chorales, publishers, performers and even special features, such as the harmonium arrangement of the 30 Little chorale preludes op.135a.

An edition that should set standards for further major editorial projects; the wealth of material and the quality of the sheet music and DVD naturally also explain the high price.

Max Reger, Works Edition, Volume I/4, Choral Preludes, incl. DVD, CV 52.804, € 188.00, Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart 2013