Rheinlegendchen
Revelge
Aus! Aus!
Trost Im Unglück
Das Irdische Leben
Ablösung Im Sommer
Ich Ging Mit Lust Durch Einen Grünen Wald
Starke Einbildungskraft
Um Schlimme Kinder Artig Zu Machen
Nicht Wiedersehen!

‘Holzmair makes an authoritative guide to German song […] Deservedly so – for no other singer of German song at the moment communicates so intently the rhythm and meaning of the poems.’ Financial Times, 2010

Wolfgang Holzmair is one of the great word-painters of our time, and one of the foremost interpreters of Mahler’s songs. This new recording of songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn was made to mark his 60th birthday. His interpretation of this music draws upon many years of experience and brings a deep insight to these wonderful songs.

Holzmair is embarking on an international tour of this repertoire, which has been a central part of his career, to mark his birthday.

Mahler composed his settings of poems by Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim in 1892. The piano-writing is remarkable for its almost orchestral complexity and imitation of orchestral effects. Mahler would eventually score 12 of the Wunderhorn songs for orchestra. The poems’ appeal to Mahler is easy to understand – nature, yearning, love, farewells, night, death, spectral goings-on, boisterous youth, high spirits and wry, crisp humour all combined with the agitated imagination and personality of the composer to produce some of the greatest songs by any composer. They also formed the fertile ground from which several of the symphonies grew.