Mahler Foundation

A listening guide of Des Knaben Wunderhorn -  Urlicht with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.

The final movement culminates in a resolution. The music, also reused in the First Symphony (in the Scherzo “Funeral March in Callot’s manner”), is subdued and gentle, lyrical and often reminiscent of a chorale in its harmonies. Its title, “Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz” (“The Two Blue Eyes of my Beloved”), deals with how the image of those eyes has caused the Wayfarer so much grief that he can no longer stand to be in the environment.

He describes lying down under a linden tree, allowing the flowers to fall on him. He wishes to return to his life before his travels. He asks that the whole affair had never occurred: “Everything: love and grief, and world, and dreams!”  

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A listening guide of Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen – Die Zwei Blauen Augen with Lew Smoley

Gustav Mahler score Klavierquartett, piano quartet, Movement 1: in A.

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A listening guide of Klavierquartett with Lew Smoley.

Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) is a song cycle for voice and orchestra by Gustav Mahler. The words of the songs are poems by Friedrich Ruckert (1788-1866).

The original Kindertotenlieder were a group of 428 poems written by Rückert in 1833-1834 in an outpouring of grief following the illness (scarlet fever) and death of two of his children. Karen Painter describes the poems thus: “Rückert’s 428 poems on the death of children became singular, almost manic documents of the psychological endeavor to cope with such loss. In ever new variations Rückert’s poems attempt a poetic resuscitation of the children that is punctuated by anguished outbursts. But above all the poems show a quiet acquiescence to fate and to a peaceful world of solace.” These poems were not intended for publication, and they appeared in print only in 1871, five years after the poet’s death.

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A listening guide of Kindertotenlieder – Intro with Lew Smoley.

A listening guide of Kindertotenlieder – Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n with Lew Smoley.

A listening guide of Kindertotenlieder – Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen with Lew Smoley.

A listening guide of Kindertotenlieder – Wenn dein Mütterlein with Lew Smoley.

A listening guide of Kindertotenlieder – Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen with Lew Smoley.

A listening guide of Kindertotenlieder – In diesem Wetter, In diesem Braus with Lew Smoley.

Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) is a composition for two voices and orchestra by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). Composed between Year 1908 and Year 1909 following the most painful period in Mahler’s life (Year 1907). The songs address themes such as Living, Parting and Salvation.

Mahler had already included movements for voice and orchestra in his Symphony No. 2, No. 3, No. 4 and No. 8. Das Lied von der Erde is the first work giving a complete integration of song cycle and symphony. The form was afterwards imitated by other composers, notably by Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) and Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942). It has been termed a ‘song-symphony’. A hybrid of the two forms that had occupied most of Mahler’s creative life. 

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A listening guide of Das Lied von der Erde – Intro with Lew Smoley.