Mahler: Songs of Youth; Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

Featuring

Dame Janet Baker
Geoffrey Parsons
Gustav Mahler

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Historical Context

Many of Mahler's 'Wunderhorn' songs are settings of texts from 'Des Knaben Wunderhorn', a collection of German folk poetry published in 1806 by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano.

Composition History

Mahler's song cycle 'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen' was inspired by his love for Johanna Richter, an opera-singer at Kassel, and began as a group of six poems addressed to her.

Composer Biography

Gustav Mahler's early career as a song-writer, up to 1890, is covered in this recording, including all his songs from that period except two unfinished or lost ones.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Mahler's mature compositional years were dedicated to two distinct genres: the intimate lied and the expansive symphony, which mutually influenced each other and eventually fused in 'Das Lied von der Erde'.

Compositional Technique

Mahler's fascination with the Ländler, a type of rustic waltz, is first seen in the song 'Hans und Grete', and its idiom was later re-used in the scherzo of his Symphony No. 1.

Composition History

Mahler's first love, Josephine Poisl, the daughter of the postmaster in his hometown, inspired him to compose a collection of five songs, though he only completed three.

Compositional Technique

Mahler's 'Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen' contains musical material that was later expanded and used in the first and third movements of his Symphony No. 1.