Max Reger - Clarinet Quintet, String Sextet - Sabine Meyer & Wiener Streichsextett

Max Reger's music is complex, difficult, studious, technically great but emotionally lacking, and the fact that on most photographs of him he looks quite grumpy fits the image. Yet the cliché is distroyed by his clarinet quintet, beautifully played here by Sabine Meyer. Being the last piece the composer wrote (something of an alcoholic, he died aged 43), it has an intensely moving lyricism while displaying a quiet resignation. This autumnal feel immediately remind the listener of those other masterpieces in the genre: Mozart's and Brahms' clarinet quintets, with which it has also formal parallels.
By contrast, the string sextet is almost symphonic, full of energy and colour, but with a long slow movement which Reger has described as "a prayer".