Reger for Violin and Piano. Even though Reger was a composer who had his friends and foes – with the former honoring him as a musical giant but the latter not finding anything at all to like about him, today we are in the position to recognize his undisputed greatness and originality without such prejudices getting in the way. Reger’s compositional productivity can only be termed astonishing, and he made generous contributions to almost all the musical genres except the opera and the symphony. Chamber music may be said to enjoy the greatest pride of place in his oeuvre, and within this category works for violin and piano constitute the largest complex. This instrumental and formal combination fascinated Reger for the whole of twenty-five years. The fascinating artists Ulf Wallin and Roland Pöntinen, interpreting Reger, so to speak from a Swedish-Finnish angle, have now recorded his eighth Violin Sonata op. 122 of 1911 and the Suite op. 103a of 1908 for cpo. Although the formal design of the sonata adheres to the classical model and in this respect is rather conservative, its musical language and dynamics with rich chromatic colorations and modulations taking us through all the keys on what is a never-ending harmonic quest charge it with high expressivity from start to finish. The suite’s six recital pieces are delightful, engaging compositions that earned it mass appeal, but the popularity enjoyed by them does not mean that this chamber work bearing Reger’s personal signature is to be underestimated.