Adagio

The E minor sonata met with conspicuously contradictory interpretations; what to one listener seemed to be buoyant and carefree seemed to another to be redolent of pessimistic pondering; it must be said that the latter was more probable, since Reger was in fact mourning his mother's death at the time. Without doubt, it is a work full of subtle meaning - one in which the inherent amicable gestures, if taken at face value, could be easily misunderstood.