What is Max Reger?
[[File:Max reger 1.jpg|thumb|Max Reger]] '''Max Reger''' (born in [[Brand, Bavaria|Brand]], [[Bavaria]], 19 March 1873; died 11 May 1916) was a [[Germany|German]] [[composer]], [[pipe organ|organist]], [[pianist]] and teacher. == Life == Reger’s father was a schoolteacher who was an [[amateur]] [[musician]]. When he was a boy Max helped his father to rebuild an [[pipe organ|organ]] that was going to be thrown away. This was the instrument on which he learned to play. It was some time before he started proper lessons, but by the time he was a teenager he was playing the organ for church services. When he was 15 he went to [[Bayreuth]] to hear [[Richard Wagner|Wagner’s]] operas. This was the moment when Reger decided he wanted to become a musician. Reger studied music in [[Munich]] and [[Wiesbaden]] with a famous teacher Hugo Riemann. He composed a lot of music, especially for the organ. His musical style was similar to that of [[Brahms]], but he also learned a lot from the music of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]], [[Mendelssohn]] and [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]]. He liked the [[symphonic poem]]s of [[Franz Liszt|Liszt]] and these gave him the ideas for writing chorale fantasies for the organ, although he never wrote music that tells a story ([[programme music]]). In 1902, Reger married. He and his wife [[adoption|adopted]] two children. In 1907, he became professor of [[composition]] at the University of [[Leipzig]]. He was a very good teacher. He became well-known abroad. He travelled to London where he spent hours in the [[art gallery|art galleries]]. Then he bored his friends by talking all the time about the [[painting]]s. He conducted the orchestra at [[Meiningen]], performing works by many composers, especially Brahms, [[Anton Bruckner|Bruckner]] and his own. Reger enjoyed eating and drinking. He regularly went to his local café where he would eat ten large [[sausage]]s and drink ten glasses of [[beer]]. His [[health]] got bad, and he died of a [[heart attack]] in Leipzig, where he was visiting friends on