The Suite for Orchestra, Op. 93, by German composer Max Reger, is an orchestral arrangement from 1916 of his Suite im alten Stil for violin and piano from 1906. Like the original version, the orchestral suite consists of three movements: Präludium, Largo, and Fuge. Clearly based on Baroque forms and compositional methods with including allusions to Baroque works, including a near quotation in the Präludium from the opening movement of Bach's Third Brandenburg Concerto, Reger's Suite is nevertheless fully as modern in its harmonies as anything else Reger wrote. Indeed, the central Largo may well be the most beautiful and emotionally affecting slow movement he ever composed. Like so many of Reger's concluding fugues, the Fuge of the Suite tends to be overly ornate and intensely intellectual with a stretto which might prove bombastic to some listeners.

© James Leonard, Rovi