GUSTAV MAHLER
• Kindertotenlieder
• Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
• Rückert-Lieder
Performed by Katarina Karnéus (mezzo-soprano), with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra / Susanna Mälkki
Swedish Mezzo-soprano and former winner of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Katarina Karnéus is joined on this CD by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki to perform three of Gustav Mahler’s orchestral song cycles.
Just like Mahler’s wife, I, too, am uncomfortable hearing songs about the death of children. So I will skip that part. Mahler wrote this music when he had two adorable little girls, and later one of them died from Diphtheria…
As a composer, Gustav Mahler was focused on the use of song and symphony as complementary genres deeply involved with each other. In his first symphony, Mahler included two themes from the song cycle Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen, originally scored for voice and piano, which he had recently composed to his own poems. It was perhaps the experience of orchestrating these themes in his symphony that a few years later inspired Mahler to create the version for voice and orchestra.
All of the songs in Kindertotenlieder and Rückert-Lieder are settings of poems by the poet Friedrich Rückert, composed between 1901 and 1904. While the Kindertotenlieder were conceived as a song cycle, the Rückert-Lieder are more loosely connected with each other, and they include some of the most sublime Mahlerian moments, for instance in in the song “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen”.
Here are the tracks on this CD:
1. Kindertotenlieder, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): 1. Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgehn
2. Kindertotenlieder, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): 2. Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen
3. Kindertotenlieder, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): 3. Wenn Dein Mütterlein
4. Kindertotenlieder, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): 4. Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen!
5. Kindertotenlieder, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): 5. In diesem Wetter!
6. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): 1. Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht
7. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): 2. Ging heut’ morgen über’s Feld
8. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): 3. Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer
9. Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra): 4. Die zwei blauen Augen
10. Rückert Lieder, song collection for voice & piano (or orchestra): Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!
11. Rückert Lieder, song collection for voice & piano (or orchestra): Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft!
12. Rückert Lieder, song collection for voice & piano (or orchestra): Liebst du um Schönheit
13. Rückert Lieder, song collection for voice & piano (or orchestra): Um Mitternacht
14. Rückert Lieder, song collection for voice & piano (or orchestra): Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
From Gustav Mahler’s Ruckert Lieder, the Swedish mezzo-soprano, Katarina Karneus, sings “Um Mitternacht”
And here is Katarina Karneus singing Mahler’s “Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft”
Tags: Katarina Karneus, mezzo-soprano, Mahler, Kindertotenlieder,
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert-Lieder