The anniversary composer who reads both ways

The Bavarian composer, Max Reger, born 150 years ago this weekend, will not receive anything like the attention that shines on his Russian contemporary Sergei Rachmaninov.

Where Rachmaninov had instant audience appeal, Reger was a methodical composer, never happier (though, being a drinker, he was seldom happy) than when working out symmetrical problems in sets of orchestral variations. He wrote a vast amount for organ, even more for choirs.
Nothing he wrote was a hit, even in Germany where his Brahmsian-Brucknerian seriousness was dutifully appreciated.

The one thing people remember about Reger is that his name is a palinndrom – it reads the same way backwards.

Some said his music did much the same.