When Reger was in Dortmund for a three-day festival dedicated to his music in 1910, the pianist Frieda Kwast-Hodapp played his Variations and Fugue on a Theme by J. S. Bach, Op.

The autograph manuscript was lost in the destruction of the publisher's Berlin headquarters in 1943, but the dedication was apparently: "This beastly stuff belongs to Frau Kwast.

[4] The movement is composed in an "overarching sonata form", with a symphonic approach treating piano and orchestra as equals.

[6][4][7] Pianist Amadeus Webersinke made a recording in 1973, with Dresdner Philharmonie conducted by Günther Herbig; it was reissued in 2002 on CD, and in 2006 in a collection of Reger's orchestral works.

[9] It was recorded in 2010 by Marc-André Hamelin with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin conducted by Ilan Volkov, combined with the Burleske by Richard Strauss.

A reviewer noted that Hamelin successfully characterised the challenging material, and named the pianist's playing of the "extremely demanding pyrotechnics" "absolutely astonishing".

[3] In 2016, on the occasion of the centenary of Reger's death, Peter Serkin played the concerto with the American Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein at Carnegie Hall, New York City.

A reviewer of the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote that Becker mastered the virtuoso aspects of dense chords and octave runs "mit Löwenpranken" (transl.