Marc-André Hamelin, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin/Ilan Volkov
Hyperion CDA 67635 ***

Nicolas Slonimsky, author of Music Since 1900 and A Lexicon of Musical Invective, was a man rarely short of an apt description. For example, he called Max Reger "the last great contrapuntist of the 20th century". But he also described Reger's piano concerto as being written in "a luxuriant romantic manner of high viscosity". That viscosity is the work's Achilles heel. Reger knew the piece would meet resistance for

years (it was savaged at its premiere), and inscribed a copy to Frieda Kwast-Hodapp, who commented: “This beastly stuff belongs to Frau Kwast. The Chief Pig, Max Reger, confirms it.” Marc-André Hamelin handles its manifest challenges with a Regerian earnestness that ensures its density remains chewy. And he delivers Richard Strauss’s early, Brahmsian Burleske with easy brilliance.

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