Songs of a Wayfarer (Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen), Mahler's first orchestral song cycle, is a strongly autobiographical work. Set to his own text, it is a revealing self-portrait of the young man in the agonies of love, and a work considered by many to be the masterpiece of Mahler's early period.
The folklore idioms of Songs of the Wayfarer give way to the haunting musical imagery of Mahler's later style in the Kindertotenlieder (Songs of the Death of Children), the company's setting of five poems by Friedrich Rückert. Filled with the delicate counterpoint and luminous chromatic harmony of his last works, they reflect another compelling facet of Mahler's intense romanticism.
These two deeply moving scores, both favorites of musical artists and their audiences today, are reprinted here from the original German editions. They will provide musicians and music lovers a lifetime of study and enjoyment of two of Mahler's masterly achievements for voice and orchestra.