Max Reger at work: painting by Franz Nolken (1913) Max Reger experienced a disastrous breakdown in both his health and professional life in 1897: his pieces had been rejected by both his publisher and numerous organists, who described them as unplayable, due to their immense technical difficulties and complexity.  Although he responded with 'I cannot give up my demands on the performers and my way of writing, if I want to achieve what I have in mind artistically', both his health and his finances were in ruins, and he was persuaded by his younger sister to…