Gustav Mahler: Lieder aus „Des Knaben Wunderhorn“

The year 1788 was certainly a difficult one in Mozart’s life, with an empty purse, cancelled concerts and the death of his six-month-old daughter. Yet he was also creatively inspired, writing three symphonies in three months, the second of which, the restless Symphony in G minor, was particularly admired by the Romantics. Those same Romantics also readily immersed themselves in Des Knaben Wunderhorn, an anthology of supposedly forgotten traditional German songs which were in fact considerably modified by the authors of the collection. Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms all succumbed to the magic of these fantastical tales, at times rather mundane, at times quite philosophical. Likewise Mahler, who wove them into three symphonies and more than one cycle of songs.