Max Reger constructed the grandest, most imposing edifices of counterpoint for the organ since J.S. Bach. Indeed, when composing for organ, Reger consciously emulated the titan of the Baroque, using the same forms and often using the great Lutheran chorale tunes as inspiration, even though Reger himself was Catholic. So when Reger decided to pay Bach explicit homage by writing a Fantasia and fugue for organ using the personal theme Bach had introduced in his Art of Fugue, there could be no question but that the work would be heartfelt, massive, and nearly overwhelming in its power. "B-A-C-H," in German notation, corresponds to B-A-C-B-flat; the close descending intervals, a whole step and then a half-step, are ripe with dissonant possibilities, and Reger seems determined to explore them all in the opening moments of the Fantasia. Huge, almost smothering chords, anguished and excited, yield only to short silences to let their echoes fade. When B-A-C-H makes its first solo appearance, it is treated like a provocation, spurring the hysteria to new heights. Throughout the Fantasia, however, the four notes, or transpositions thereof, remain palpable, figuring in melancholy chorale-like passages, frenetic accelerandos and mercurial tempo shifts. This music also stays in the minor mode almost the whole way through, and the dark, threatening atmosphere only lifts with the final Picardy third. The Fugue begins with a slow, quiet subject built entirely around B-A-C-H and a transposition; Reger's ceaseless exploration of these two intervals in this work could almost be counted as a precursor of Arnold Schoenberg's work. A meditative atmosphere prevails for much of the movement, but soon accelerandos lead into another fugue subject, this one much faster and in contrasting rhythm. Soon the unadorned B-A-C-H makes its presence felt, and all three themes come together to repel a repeat of the opening chords of the Fantasia, closing with a radiant triumph of the major. Though this work lies thoroughly in the Romantic organ tradition, it evokes Bach both with the skill of its counterpoint and the unapologetic, unrestrained fervor of its writing.

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