Max Reger Stamp

This article features the German Max Reger stamp of 1991. Reger was a composer, teacher, pianist and conductor. However, he was best known as an organist and his compositions for the organ are still heard around the world. There are a number of stamps honoring organists and organ composers, read about stamps featuring Buxtehude and Bruckner. That doesn’t even include other composers known for their organ music in addition to other compositions like Bach and Liszt.

Max Reger

Johann baptist Joseph Maximillian Reger was born in Brand, Bavaria in 1873. His father was a teacher and amateur musician and the family was devoutly catholic. Max began learning music at the age of five, showing great talent and receiving lessons in organ, violin, cello, and piano. At the age of eleven, he became the substitute organist for a parish church in the city of Lindner.

Reger had a transformative experience in 1888, when he went to the Bayreuth Festival and heard several of Richard Wagner’s operas. Afterwards, the young Reger decided to pursue a music career. This was over the objections of his parents. That summer, he wrote his first major musical composition, an orchestral overture. His desire to compose only grew stronger and the following year he wrote a string quartet, a piece for flute, and a Largo for violin and piano.

Throughout the 1890s, he continued his music studies and compositions, including works for both piano and organ. His first important choral work is from 1892. However, it was only in 1901, when he began to receive invitations to play concerts that his fame as a musician and composer began to rise. In 1902, he married Elsa von Bercken, but because she was a divorced protestant, he was excommunicated from the catholic church.

Reger became internationally famous for his compositions, for his concertizing, for teaching, and for conducting. Unfortunately, World War I interrupted his international travels, and he died of a heart attack in 1916 at the age of 43.

The Stamp

The postage stamp of Max Reger was made in 1991 in Germany. Its release coincided with the seventy-fifth anniversary of his death in 1916. The design is by the artists Ernst and Lorli Jünger. It is a modern design, featuring a colorized portrait of Reger by Theodor Hilsdorf taken around 1910. The treatment though is modern, with the top of his head cut off, his face in a sepia tones, with the bright colorization solely for his clothing. It feels a little Monty Python-ish. Behind Reger are organ pipes, specifically two ranks of pipes. This is a visual reference to his importance as a composer for the organ, without referencing a specific instrument.

As I said at the beginning, the real lasting contribution of Max Reger was his compositions for organ. You can easily find recordings of most of his work, including this Spotify channel claiming to include all of his organ works. Take a listen to his wonderful Scherzo in D as performed by Raul Prioeto Ramirez below.