Reger, Max

Reger, Max

Die Weihe der Nacht (Consecration of the Night) Op. 119 (Vocal Score)

Die Weihe der Nacht was composed by Reger in the first half of 1911 when the composer was living in Leipzig and was employed as a professor at that city’s famous conservatory. This was an especially fruitful period in Reger’s creative activity, which also saw the completion of The Comedy Overture, Op. 120, the String Quartet in F# Minor, Op. 121, the Violin Sonata in E Minor, Op. 122 and several other shorter pieces before the end of the summer vacation. The work was premiered on October 12, 1911 with Gertrude Fischer-Maretzki performing the alto solo accompanied by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with Leonid Kreutzer (1884-1953) conducting.

The text that Reger set was a poem by Friedrich Hebbel (1813-1863), one of the most important German dramatists of the 19th century who was highly regarded for having introduced an extraordinarily intense sense of tragedy into German theater. Reger also set several of Hebbel’s poems in lieder collections as well as in the Requiem, Op. 144b, the so-called “Hebbel” Requiem. Hebbel’s poems were often set to music and an incomplete list of composers who utilized his texts includes Brahms, Liszt, Cornelius, Pfitzner, Schumann, Hindemith, Schoeck, and Wolf. “Die Weihe der Nacht” itself was also set to music by the composers Hilding Rosenberg, Walter Rein, and Harald Genzmer. But for all of his fame in the German-speaking world, Hebbel’s works have received scant attention elsewhere, ironically, a fate that he shares with Reger…

For more information on the piece:

Read the preface to the full score / das Vorwort zur Partitur lesen > HERE