Reger
certainly knew the art of talking with an astonishing show of logic, and
yet saying nothing. Perhaps he talked continuously in order not to have
to reflect. And for all his erudition, he understood his masters
intellectually only. He felt himself called upon to continue the work of
the three great "B's," and yet never understood the grand spirit that
animated their art. Strauss, with his fine conduct of instruments
through the score of "Salome," is nearer the spirit of Bach than Reger
with all his fugues and double fugues ever got.
No doubt, Reger loved the mathematical solidity and balance of the older
music, and therefore sought to assimilate it. But he did more than just
learn of it, as Brahms had done. He sought to rival the great men of
the past on their own ground, to do what they did better than they had
done it, to be able to say, "See, I can do the trick, too!" So we find
him writing counterpoint for the sake of the learnedness and presumable
respectability, rather than as a piece of expression. His compositions
are overburdened and cluttered and marred by all sorts of erudite turns
and twists and manoeuvers. The man's entire attention seems to have
been set on making his works astonish the learned and make mad the
simple.
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