Max Reger

3 Choirs op. 6

Die "Drei Chöre" (The Three Choirs) op. 6 are hardly mentioned in the young Reger's correspondence. The only meaningful reference is Reger's announcement to his London publisher George Augener on August 1, 1892: "I will send the choruses op. 6 – which your son liked very much – to you tomorrow morning [...]". George Augener had spent five weeks from undergoing treatment in Wiesbaden and had met on this occasion not only Hugo Riemann but also his "favorite pupil" Reger. After the publication, the Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung remarked on the "entirely Brahmsian character to the work". It praised its polyphonic structure and its"romantic chiaroscuro [...], the effect of which the accompanying piano knows how to exalt excellently". The work was nevertheless to remain Reger's only composition for this instrumentation.