Max Reger piano

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I'd appreciate some recommendations please. I am really getting into his organ music. I know there is that 8 volume set or whatever. I am also looking for some of his pieces to play (I am intermediate level playing Bach French Suites, 3 part inventions, and Debussy Arabesque). I'm hoping that not all of his piano music is ridiculously difficult like his organ music.

Which CD(s) should I start with?

Thanks

[DieNacht]

Also a subject that is a rather discreet part of my collection ... But Serkin´s relatively late cbs-sony disc of the Bach-Variations won universal praise. Another interesting issue is Bolet´s Decca issue of the Telemann Variations. Unfortunately, these are probably the most ambitious and difficult of Reger´s piano works (?) - together with the "Introduction, Passacaglia & Fugue", the "Beethoven-Variations" and the version of the "Mozart Variations",  all for 2 pianos.

As regards the many sets of pieces ("Bünte Blätter", "Träume am Kamin" etc). I own some lesser known LP issues of some of them, pianists are Zechlin and Laugs, but I can´t say anything about them really. I also have Niels Viggo Bentzon playing one of Reger´s "Sonatinas", and since he usually has a good taste in repertoire, the sonatina works might be interesting to explore ... It turns out that it is this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj_1lr06d1s

The Piano Concerto was recorded, among others, by Serkin/Ormandy and - more recently - Barry Douglas/RCA, a very fine issue coupled with a good Strauss Burleske.

[Mandryka]

I think you may well enjoy Träume am Kamin. It's very late, introspective, subdued,  no fugues or variations.
I know it through Markus Becker's CD.  I like the way he plays it.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Thanks for the suggestions. I went shopping in Berkeley today and the Reger selection was nearly non-existent. Anyway, I did find a disc with Hamelin playing the Bach Variations and Telemann Variations. I have no frame of reference here (Donny), so it will be interesting. Will likely order other stuff online.

[Purusha]

I think you may well enjoy Träume am Kamin. It's very late, introspective, subdued,  no fugues or variations.
I know it through Markus Becker's CD.  I like the way he plays it.

That is probably my favored Reger piano composition. Most of his piano music is not at all like his chamber or organ music, which is very chromatic and highly contrapuntal. The model is the late piano works of Brahms, a model which he succeded in imitating at a technical level, but not on an artistic level, until those very late works. It is a pity he died when he did, i think the phase he entered in his last couple of years was quite special.