Four tone poems after A. Boecklin

Max Reger's “Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin”, op. 128, were composed in 1913 and rank among the most colorful orchestral works of German late Romanticism. The four pieces are based on paintings by the Swiss Symbolist Arnold Böcklin, translating his predilection for mythological, elegiac, and Dionysian subjects into musical imagery. Reger's musical language here combines chromatic harmony and contrapuntal sophistication with a lush, opulently orchestrated palette.

The range of the four pieces — from the contemplative “Hermit Playing the Violin” through the shimmering “Play of the Waves” and the brooding “Isle of the Dead” to the rapturous “Bacchanale” — reflects the stylistic diversity that distinguishes Reger's output as a whole. Within the German orchestral tradition of the early modern period, the work follows in the line of Brahms and Liszt, without, however, slavishly adopting their formal principles.

The large orchestra, with harp, expanded percussion, and quadruple winds, affords Reger a broad dynamic and coloristic spectrum. The “Four Tone Poems” are regarded as a significant example of late Romantic programme music in the German-speaking world, and show the composer at the height of his orchestral powers.