MAHLER

RÜckert-Lieder
Kindertotenlieder
Lieder eines
fahrenden Gesellen
Sarah Connolly
mezzo-soprano
Joseph Middleton
piano

1 1


RÜckert-Lieder 2.40
1.29

Kindertotenlieder
6.24
2.30
7.06

Lieder eines 3.52

fahrenden Gesellen 4.25
3.20
5.59

GUSTAV
5.08
Sarah Connolly 4.50
4.29

MAHLER mezzo-soprano
Joseph Middleton
2.46
6.12
(1860-1911) piano
Total 61.12

www.signumrecords.com
2 3
A Life in Song
Today, Mahler is remembered primarily
as a symphonist. Writing emotional
and no less richly scored statements of
faith and faithlessness, the conductor-
composer nonetheless maintained
almost constant contact with Lieder
during his life. It was the crucible of his
talent. Many of the principal themes in
his symphonies stem from song, while
others encompass singing – both for
solo voice and massed chorus. And
there are moments, like the Adagietto in
the Fifth Symphony, where poetry may
fall silent, though its eloquence shines
through. Equally, the composer’s rich
catalogue of songs, from his very earliest
folkloristic ditties, to Das Lied von der
Erde, completed just two years before
his death, reveals as much about the
complex character and overlapping
points of inspiration that combined
in the figure of Mahler.
4 5
Before he reached Das Lied von der
Erde, his late symphonic settings of
Hans Bethge’s German translations
of ancient Chinese poetry, two other
poetic sources had dominated Mahler’s
attention. The first was Des Knaben
Wunderhorn, Achim von Arnim and
Clemens Brentano’s cherished volumes
of adapted German folk poetry. First
appearing between 1805 and 1808, their
texts became Mahler’s almost constant
companion towards the end of the
19th century. But as the Romantic era
came to a close, the composer found
himself drawn to another figure from its
literary roll: the Schweinfurt-born poet
Friedrich Rückert. If the Wunderhorn
songs represent innocence tempered by
irony and experience, Mahler’s settings
of Rückert reveal a more philosophical,
world-weary approach, albeit holding the
hope of returning to the guilelessness
of youth, as had been communicated
in his Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen.
Dating from the mid-1880s, these
four songs were composed during
a peripatetic period. The composer
had left Vienna’s university and
music conservatory to start work as
a conductor, cutting his teeth in the
pit at a spa theatre in the Tyrol. Slowly,
promotions followed, and he made
his way around a series of increasingly
important Central European opera
houses, including Kassel, where he wrote
much of the Lieder eines fahrenden
Gesellen. Like his earliest songs, written
at the start of the 1880s in response to
a frustrated attraction to his childhood
friend Josephine Poisl, Mahler’s accounts
of the wandering figure who is a frequent
feature in songs by Schubert and
Schumann were composed in response
to another infatuation. Johanna Richter,
the new object of Mahler’s affection, was
one of the sopranos at the Royal Theatre
in Kassel. Desperate not to capitulate to
his feelings, which he described as
a ‘continuous and altogether intolerable
struggle’, Mahler eventually wrote to
Richter in August 1884 about a ‘solitary
wayfarer’. Clearly, the songs were already
in their inception.
‘Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht’, the
first, borrows heavily from Des Knaben
Wunderhorn. The beloved’s wedding
day, turning to mourning, as well as
the little blue flowers, doubtless forget-
me-nots, are all taken from a poem in
Arnim and Brentano’s collection. But
like the editors themselves, Mahler takes
the text and runs, turning folkloristic
impressions into something of much
greater emotional veracity. The traveller
has shrugged off all woe in ‘Ging heut’
Morgen über’s Feld’, its peppy tune
later finding its way into the opening
movement of the First Symphony. But,
like the initial song, there is a sting in the
tale, and all pretence has vanished by
the time we reach ‘Ich hab’ ein glühend
Messer’. Here, the traveller is more
like the jaded and addled protagonist
of Schubert’s Winterreise than the
melancholy innocent in Die schöne
Müllerin. And it is the imagery of those
cycles that pervades Mahler’s final song,
‘Die zwei blauen Augen’ – again invoked
in the First Symphony – with its partings
and absent companions, showered by
linden blossom.
Mahler himself bid farewell when he
wrote ‘Der Tamboursg’sell’, his final
setting from the Wunderhorn collection,
in August 1901. New realms beckoned,
with the composer turning instead to
Friedrich Rückert. While some of the
Franconian poet’s contemporaries had
denigrated his work, seeing him as a
proponent of Biedermeier sentimentality,
musicians always responded to his
poetry with much greater alacrity. There
are hundreds of settings of Rückert’s
words, with Schubert leading a charge
that would be taken up by both Robert
and Clara Schumann, as well as Berg,
Brahms, Loewe, Pfitzner, Reger and
Strauss. Arguably, none of these
composers, had as strong a kinship as
Mahler, however, even if the full power
6 7
of that connection would only be
revealed after the composer had
completed his ten settings.
Like Mahler, Rückert did not have a
happy life. In the winter of 1833–4,
he and his wife Luise suffered a great
tragedy, when both their three-year-old
daughter (also Luise) and their five-
year-old son Ernst died of scarlet fever.
Rückert poured his grief into nearly 400
Kindertotenlieder, many of which were
only published in 1872 – six years after
the poet’s own death. While Rückert’s
reputation had waned, the posthumous
publication of revised editions of his
verse, as well as a new biography,
during the last decades of the 19th
century revived his fortunes. And it was
doubtless thanks to these books that
Mahler was inspired.
The same summer that he wrote ‘Der
Tamboursg’sell’, Mahler composed
seven Rückert songs: ‘Ich atmet’ einen
linen Duft’, ‘Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!’,
‘Um Mitternacht’ and ‘Ich bin der Welt
abhanden Gekommen’, taken from
various collections; and the first, third
and fourth of a cycle that would likewise
be entitled Kindertotenlieder. The
following year, after Mahler had married
the glamorous Alma Schindler, he set
Rückert’s ‘Liebst du um Schönheit’ as a
gift for his new wife, who was pregnant
with their first child, Maria. In 1904, with
the couple now expecting a second
daughter, Anna, Mahler returned to the
Kindertotenlieder. Perhaps realising how
precious his children were to him, as well
as remembering the premature deaths of
many of his own siblings, Mahler aligned
himself with the grieving Rückert, writing
the second and fifth songs to complete
the cycle. Little did he know that, in 1907,
Maria would die of scarlet fever, the very
illness that had claimed Rückert’s own
children. ‘When I really lost my daughter’,
Mahler said to a friend, ‘I could not have
written these songs.’
The group that is now known as the
Rückert-Lieder, though originally
published separately, proves no less
emotionally acute, albeit opening in
lighter terms. The perfume of the linden
tree that fell on the wanderer in Mahler’s
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen returns
at the beginning of these settings. Here,
their ‘lovely fragrance’ inspires glittering
piano arpeggios, before settling into a
purling lullaby. More anxious is ‘Blicke mir
nicht in die Lieder!’, revealing something
of Mahler’s longing for seclusion. Now
based at his own villa on the banks of
the Wörthersee in Carinthia, he had
constructed an impressive composing
hut in the woods behind the house.
Yet, for all the song’s hermitic qualities,
assurance is given that the beloved will
be the first to experience its music –
a promise that, in Mahler’s life, would
come true the following summer.
‘Um Mitternacht’ is a dark night of the
soul. Each of its statements of time
brings about a crisis, deepening and
darkening, until the poet reveals both
his own weakness and that of mankind,
recalling a similar watershed in the Third
Symphony (with a text by Nieztsche).
Luckily, for Rückert, God can still provide
strength, and the song ends on a more
positive note. Certainly, when Mahler
wrote ‘Liebst du um Schönheit’ in 1902,
it was in a much happier mood, thanks
to the newfound joy of marriage and
imminent fatherhood. Yet, even here, in
a text previously set by Clara Schumann,
Mahler reveals a fretful quality. Perhaps,
a truer account of the Mahlers’ marriage
is in ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden
gekommen’, one of the composer’s
most insightful songs. Like the composer
himself, a solitary figure is placed outside
the bustle of the world, while his wife,
prevented from writing her own music,
has, according to her diary, ‘sunk to the
level of a housekeeper’.
The Mahlers were not always happy,
but there can be no doubt that their
troubles deepened significantly with
the death of their daughter in 1907.
Possibly prophetic of those events, and
certainly empathetic of Rückert’s plight,
the Kindertotenlieder offer a fragile
picture of grief. Removed from the bold
colours of the early symphonies, they
8 9
look to the much sparer style of Das Lied
von der Erde and the Ninth Symphony
(which quotes one of the songs in its
last movement). Yet however tragic the
cycle’s tone can prove, Rückert’s poetry
holds the promise of light beyond. ‘The
day is beautiful on those hills’, we are
told in the fourth song, while in the fifth,
despite the raging storms, the children
are ‘protected by God’s hand’. With
that hope in mind, the work closes on
a more elegiac note, though, perhaps,
it is, like the parents’ reassurance in the
penultimate Lied, as illusory as the other
comforts in Mahler’s world of song.
© Gavin Plumley, 2023
Gavin Plumley is a cultural historian who
specialises in Central European art and
music. He has written about Mahler for
leading orchestras, concert halls and music
festivals. Gavin also appears frequently on
BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4.
Rückert-Lieder
Texts by Friedrich Rückert (1788-1836)
Rückert songs
1 Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft
Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft.
Im Zimmer stand
Ein Zweig der Linde,
Ein Angebinde von lieber Hand;
Wie lieblich war der Lindenduft!
Wie lieblich ist der Lindenduft!
Das Lindenreis
Brachst du gelinde;
Ich atme leis
Im Duft der Linde
Der Liebe linden Duft.
2 Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!
Meine Augen schlag’ ich nieder,
Wie ertappt auf böser Tat;
Selber darf ich nicht getrauen,
I breathed a gentle fragrance
I breathed a gentle fragrance!
In the room stood
A spray of lime,
A gift from a dear hand;
How lovely the fragrance of lime was!
How lovely the fragrance of lime is!
The spray of lime
Was gently plucked by you!
Softly I breathe
In the fragrance of lime
The gentle fragrance of love.
Do not look into my songs!
Do not look into my songs!
I lower my gaze,
As if caught in the act;
I cannot even trust myself
Ihrem Wachsen zuzuschauen:
Deine Neugier ist Verrat!
Bienen, wenn sie Zellen bauen,
Lassen auch nicht zu sich schauen,
Schauen selbst auch nicht zu.
Wenn die reichen Honigwaben
Sie zu Tag befördert haben,
Dann vor allen nasche du!
3 Um Mitternacht
Um Mitternacht hab’ ich gewacht
Und aufgeblickt zum Himmel; kein Stern
vom Sterngewimmel
Hat mir gelacht um Mitternacht.
Um Mitternacht hab’ ich gedacht
Hinaus in dunkle Schranken; es hat kein
Lichtgedanken
Mir Trost gebracht um Mitternacht.
Um Mitternacht nahm ich in acht
Die Schläge meines Herzens; ein
inz’ger Puls des Schmerzens
War angefacht um Mitternacht.
Um Mitternacht kämpft’ ich die Schlacht,
O Menschheit, deiner Leiden; nicht konnt’
ich sie entscheiden
10
To watch them growing: Mit meiner Macht um Mitternacht. By my own strength at midnight.
Your curiosity is treason! Um Mitternacht hab’ ich die Macht At midnight I gave my strength
Bees, when they build cells, In deine Hand gegeben: Herr über Tod Into Thy hands: Lord over life and death,
Let no one watch either, und Leben, Thou keepest watch at midnight.
And do not even watch themselves. Du hältst die Wacht um Mitternacht!
When the rich honeycombs
Have been brought to daylight,
You shall be the first to taste! 4 Liebst du um Schönheit If you love for beauty
Liebst du um Schönheit, If you love for beauty,
O nicht mich liebe! O love not me!
At midnight
Liebe die Sonne, Love the sun,
At midnight I kept watch Sie trägt ein goldnes Haar! She has golden hair!
And looked up to heaven; not a star in Liebst du um Jugend, If you love for youth,
the galaxy O nicht mich liebe! O love not me!
Smiled on me at midnight. Liebe den Frühling, Love the spring
At midnight my thoughts went out Der jung ist jedes Jahr! Which is young each year!
To the dark reaches of space; no shining Liebst du um Schätze, If you love for riches,
thought O nicht mich liebe! O love not me!
Brought me comfort at midnight. Liebe die Meerfrau, Love the mermaid
At midnight I paid heed Sie hat viel Perlen klar! Who has many shining pearls!
To the beating of my heart; a single Liebst du um Liebe, If you love for love,
pulse of pain O ja mich liebe! Ah yes, love me!
Was set alight at midnight. Liebe mich immer, Love me always,
At midnight I fought the fight, Dich lieb’ ich immerdar. I shall love you ever more!
O Mankind, of your afflictions; I could
not gain victory
11
5 Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen I am lost to the world
Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen,
Mit der ich sonst viele Zeit verdorben.
Sie hat so lange nichts von mir vernommen,
Sie mag wohl glauben, ich sei gestorben.
Es ist mir auch gar nichts daran gelegen,
Ob sie mich für gestorben hält.
Ich kann auch gar nichts sagen dagegen,
Denn wirklich bin ich gestorben der Welt.
Ich bin gestorben dem Weltgetümmel,
Und ruh’ in einem stillen Gebiet.
Ich leb’ allein in meinem Himmel,
In meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied.
12
I am lost to the world
With which I used to waste much time;
It has for so long heard nothing of me,
It may well believe I am dead.
Nor am I at all concerned
If it should think me dead.
Nor can I deny it,
For truly I am dead to the world.
I am dead to the world’s tumult
And rest in a quiet realm.
I live alone in my heaven,
In my loving, in my song.
Lieder eines
fahrenden Gesellen
Texts by Gustav Mahler
Songs of a wayfarer
6 Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht
Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht,
Fröhliche Hochzeit macht,
Hab’ ich meinen traurigen Tag!
Geh’ ich in mein Kämmerlein,
Dunkles Kämmerlein!
Weine! wein’! Um meinen Schatz,
Um meinen lieben Schatz!
Blümlein blau! Blümlein blau!
Verdorre nicht, verdorre nicht!
Vöglein süß! Vöglein süß!
Du singst auf grüner Heide!
„Ach! wie ist die Welt so schön!
Ziküth! Ziküth!“
Singet nicht! Blühet nicht!
Lenz ist ja vorbei!
Alles Singen ist nun aus!
When my love has her wedding-day
When my love has her wedding-day
Her joyous wedding-day,
I’ll have my day of mourning!
I’ll go into my little room,
My dark little room!
I’ll weep, weep! For my love,
My dearest love!
Blue little flower! Blue little flower!
Do not wither, do not wither!
Sweet little bird! Sweet little bird!
Singing on the green heath!
‘Ah, how fair the world is!
Jug-jug! Jug-jug!’
Do not sing! Do not bloom!
For spring is over!
All singing now is done!
13
Des Abends, wenn ich schlafen geh’,
Denk’ ich an mein Leide!
An mein Leide!
7 Ging heut’ Morgen über’s Feld,
Ging heut’ Morgen über’s Feld
Tau noch auf den Gräsern hing,
Sprach zu mir der lust’ge Fink:
„Ei, du! Gelt?
Guten Morgen! Ei, Gelt? Du!
Wird’s nicht eine schöne Welt?
Zink! Zink! Schön und flink!
Wie mir doch die Welt gefällt!“
Auch die Glockenblum’ am Feld
Hat mir lustig, guter Ding’,
Mit den Glöckchen, klinge, kling,
Ihren Morgengruß geschellt:
„Wird’s nicht eine schöne Welt?
Kling! Kling! Schönes Ding!
Wie mir doch die Welt gefällt!“
Und da fing im Sonnenschein
Gleich die Welt zu funkeln an;
Alles, Alles, Ton und Farbe gewann!
Im Sonnenschein!
14
At night, when I go to rest,
I think of my sorrow!
My sorrow!
I walked across the fields this morning
I walked across the fields this morning,
Dew still hung on the grass,
The merry finch said to me:
‘You there, hey –
Good morning! Hey, you there!
Isn’t it a lovely world?
Tweet! Tweet! Bright and sweet!
O how I love the world!’
And the harebell at the field’s edge,
Merrily and in good spirits,
Ding-ding with its tiny bell
Rang out its morning greeting:
‘Isn’t it a lovely world?
Ding-ding! Beautiful thing!
O how I love the world!’
And then in the gleaming sun
The world at once began to sparkle;
All things gained in tone and colour!
In the sunshine!
Blum’ und Vogel, groß und klein!
„Guten Tag! Guten Tag!
Ist’s nicht eine schöne Welt?
Ei, du! Gelt? Schöne Welt!“
Nun fängt auch mein Glück wohl an?
Nein! Nein! Das ich mein’,
Mir nimmer, nimmer blühen kann!
8 Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer
Ich hab’ ein glühend Messer,
Ein Messer in meiner Brust,
O weh! O weh!
Das schneid’t so tief
In jede Freud’ und jede Lust,
So tief! so tief!
Es schneid’t so weh und tief!
Ach, was ist das für ein böser Gast!
Nimmer hält er Ruh’,
Nimmer hält er Rast!
Nicht bei Tag,
Nicht bei Nacht, wenn ich schlief!
O weh! O weh! O weh!
Wenn ich in den Himmel seh’,
Seh’ ich zwei blaue Augen steh’n!
Flower and bird, great and small.
‘Good day! Good day!
Isn’t it a lovely world?
Hey, you there!? A lovely world?’
Will my happiness now begin?
No! No! The happiness I mean
Can never never bloom for me!
I’ve a gleaming knife
I’ve a gleaming knife,
A knife in my breast,
Alas! Alas!
It cuts so deep
Into every joy and every bliss,
So deep, so deep!
It cuts so sharp and deep!
Ah, what a cruel guest it is!
Never at peace,
Never at rest!
Neither by day
Nor by night, when I’d sleep!
Alas! Alas! Alas!
When I look into the sky,
I see two blue eyes!
15
O weh! O weh!
Wenn ich im gelben Felde geh’,
Seh’ ich von fern das blonde Haar
Im Winde weh’n! O weh! O weh!
Wenn ich aus dem Traum auffahr’
Und höre klingen ihr silbern Lachen,
O weh! O weh!
Ich wollt’, ich läg’ auf der schwarzen Bahr’,
Könnt’ nimmer die Augen aufmachen!
9 Die zwei blauen Augen von
meinem Schatz
Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz,
Die haben mich in die weite Welt geschickt.
Da mußt’ ich Abschied nehmen
Vom allerliebsten Platz!
O Augen blau, warum habt ihr mich angeblickt?
Nun hab’ ich ewig Leid und Grämen!
Ich bin ausgegangen in stiller Nacht,
Wohl über die dunkle Heide.
Hat mir niemand Ade gesagt, Ade!
Mein Gesell’ war Lieb’ und Leide!
Auf der Straße stand ein Lindenbaum,
Da hab’ ich zum ersten Mal im Schlaf geruht!
16
Alas! Alas!
When I walk in the yellow field,
I see from afar her golden hair
Blowing in the wind! Alas! Alas!
When I wake with a jolt from my dream
And hear her silvery laugh,
Alas! Alas!
I wish I were lying on the black bier,
And might never open my eyes again!
The two blue eyes of my love
The two blue eyes of my love
Have sent me into the wide world.
I had to bid farewell
To the place I loved most!
O blue eyes, why did you look on me?
Grief and sorrow shall now be mine
forever!
I set out in the still night,
Across the dark heath.
No one bade me farewell, farewell!
My companions were love and sorrow!
A lime tree stood by the roadside,
Where I first found peace in sleep!
Unter dem Lindenbaum,
Der hat seine Blüten über mich geschneit,
Da wußt’ ich nicht, wie das Leben tut,
War alles, alles wieder gut!
Alles! Alles!
Lieb’ und Leid, und Welt und Traum!
Kindertotenlieder
Text by Friedrich Rückert
Songs on the death of children
10 Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n
Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n,
Als sei kein Unglück die Nacht gescheh’n!
Das Unglück geschah nur mir allein!
Die Sonne, sie scheinet allgemein!
Du mußt nicht die Nacht in dir
verschränken,
Mußt sie ins ew’ge Licht versenken!
Ein Lämplein verlosch in meinem Zelt!
Heil sei dem Freudenlicht der Welt!
Under the lime tree
Which snowed its blossom on me,
I was not aware of how life hurt,
And all, all was well once more!
All! All!
Love and sorrow, and world and dream!
Now the sun will rise as bright
Now the sun will rise as bright,
As though no misfortune had befallen in
the night!
The misfortune befell me alone!
The sun, it shines on all mankind!
You must not enclose the night within you,
You must immerse it in eternal light!
A little lamp went out in my firmament!
Hail to the joyful light of the world!
17
11 Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so Now I see clearly why you so often 12 Wenn dein Mütterlein When your dear mother
dunkle Flammen
Now I see clearly why you so often Wenn dein Mütterlein When your dear mother
Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flashed such dark flames at me. Tritt zur Tür herein, Comes in through the door
Flammen O eyes! To compress, as it were, all Und den Kopf ich drehe, And I turn my head
Ihr sprühet mir in manchem Augenblicke. your power Ihr entgegen sehe, To look at her,
O Augen! Gleichsam, um voll in einem Blicke Into a single glance. Fällt auf ihr Gesicht My gaze falls first,
Zu drängen eure ganze Macht zusammen. Yet I could not guess, for mists Erst der Blick mir nicht, Not on her face,
Dort ahnt’ ich nicht, weil Nebel mich surrounded me, Sondern auf die Stelle, But on that place
umschwammen, Woven by fate to dazzle me, Näher nach der Schwelle, Nearer the threshold
Gewoben vom verblendenden Geschicke, That your brightness was already making Dort, wo würde dein Where your
Daß sich der Strahl bereits zur Heimkehr for home, Lieb’ Gesichtchen sein, Dear little face would be,
schicke, Towards that place whence all light comes. Wenn du freudenhelle If`you, bright-eyed,
Dorthin, von wannen alle Strahlen stammen. With your shining light you wished to Trätest mit herein, Were entering with her,
Ihr wolltet mir mit eurem Leuchten sagen: tell me: Wie sonst, mein Töchterlein! As you used, my daughter.
Wir möchten nah dir bleiben gerne, We’d love to stay here by your side,
Wenn dein Mütterlein When your dear mother
Doch ist uns das vom Schicksal But this our destiny denies us.
Tritt zur Tür herein Comes in through the door
abgeschlagen. Look at us well, for soon we shall be
Mit der Kerze Schimmer, With the flickering candle,
Sieh’ uns nur an, denn bald sind wir dir ferne! far away!
Ist es mir, als immer I always think
Was dir nur Augen sind in diesen Tagen: What now are merely eyes to you,
Kämst du mit herein, ou are coming too,
In künft’gen Nächten sind es dir nur Sterne. In nights to come shall be merely stars.
Huschtest hinterdrein, Stealing in behind her,
Als wie sonst ins Zimmer! As you used.
O du, des Vaters Zelle, O you, the joyful light,
Ach, zu schnelle Ah, too soon extinguished,
Erlosch’ner Freudenschein! Of your father’s flesh and blood!

18 19
13 Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur
ausgegangen
Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen,
Bald werden sie wieder nach Hause
gelangen.
Der Tag ist schön, O sei nicht bang,
Sie machen nur einen weiten Gang.
Ja wohl, sie sind nur ausgegangen
Und werden jetzt nach Hause gelangen.
O, sei nicht bang, der Tag ist schön.
Sie machen nur den Gang zu jenen Höh’n.
Sie sind uns nur vorausgegangen
Und werden nicht wieder nach Haus
verlangen!
Wir holen sie ein auf jenen Höh’n
Im Sonnenschein! Der Tag ist schön auf
jenen Höh’n!
20
I often think they have only gone out
I often think they have only gone out,
They will soon be coming home again.
It is a beautiful day Ah, do not be afraid,
They have only gone for a long walk.
Yes, they have only gone out
And will now be coming home again.
Do not be afraid, it is a beautiful day.
They are only walking to those hills.
They have merely gone on ahead of us
And will not ask to come home again!
We shall overtake them on those hills
In the sunshine! The day is beautiful on
those hills!
14 In diesem Wetter, in diesem Braus
In diesem Wetter, in diesem Braus,
Nie hätt’ ich gesendet die Kinder hinaus,
Man hat sie getragen, getragen hinaus.
Ich durfte nichts dazu sagen.
In diesem Wetter, in diesem Saus,
Nie hätt’ ich gelassen die Kinder hinaus,
Ich fürchtete, sie erkranken;
Das sind nun eitle Gedanken.
In diesem Wetter, in diesem Graus,
Nie hätt’ ich gelassen die Kinder hinaus.
Ich sorgte, sie stürben morgen,
Das ist nun nicht zu besorgen.
In diesem Wetter, in diesem Graus!
Nie hätt’ ich gesendet die Kinder hinaus.
Man hat sie hinaus getragen;
Ich durfte nichts dazu sagen!
In diesem Wetter, in diesem Saus, in
diesem Braus,
Sie ruh’n, als wie in der Mutter Haus.
Von keinem Sturm erschrecket,
Von Gottes Hand bedecket,
Sie ruh’n wie in der Mutter Haus!
Translations © by Richard Stokes from The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)
In this weather, this raging storm
In this weather, this raging storm,
I’d never have sent the children out;
They were carried, carried from the house,
There was nothing I could say.
In this weather, this howling gale,
I’d never have let the children out,
I feared that they would fall ill,
These are now but idle thoughts.
In this weather, this dreadful blast,
I’d never have let the children out.
I feared they might die next day,
There is no cause for such fears now.
In this weather, this dreadful blast,
I’d never have sent the children out.
They were carried from the house;
There was nothing I could say.
In this weather, this howling gale, this
raging storm,
They rest, as if in their mother’s house.
Frightened by no storm,
Protected by God’s hand,
They rest, as if in their mother’s house!
21
Sarah Connolly
Sarah Connolly was made a DBE in
the 2017 Birthday Honours, having
previously been awarded a CBE in
the 2010 New Year Honours. In 2020
she was made an Honorary Member
of the Royal Philharmonic Society
in recognition of her outstanding
services to music.
She has sung at the Aldeburgh,
Edinburgh, Lucerne, Salzburg and
Tanglewood Festivals and the BBC
Proms where, in 2009, she was
a soloist at the Last Night. Opera
engagements have taken her around
the world from the Metropolitan
Opera to the Royal Opera House,
the Paris Opera, La Scala Milan, the
Vienna and Munich State Operas and
the Bayreuth, Glyndebourne and
Aix-en-Provence Festivals.
Much admired for her interpretations
and recordings of Mahler’s vocal
22
works, she has sung Das Lied von
der Erde, the Rückert-Lieder, Des
Knaben Wunderhorn, Lieder
eines fahrenden gesellen and
the Kindertotenlieder with leading
orchestras and conductors around the
world. Notably, she has performed his
Symphony no. 2 with the Philadelphia
Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin,
© Christopher Pledger
the LSO/Sir Simon Rattle, the LPO/
Vladimir Jurowski and with the Boston
Symphony Orchestra under both
Manfred Honeck and Christoph von
Dohnányi. She has also performed his
Symphony no. 3 with the LSO/Bernard
Haitink and the Wiener Symphoniker/
Andrés Orozco-Estrada and his
San Francisco, Atlanta, Stuttgart; at
Symphony no. 8 with the Philharmonia
the Incontri in Terra di Siena La Foce
Orchestra/Lorin Maazel.
and the Schubertiada Vilabertran
Her recital appearances include and at the Aldeburgh, Cheltenham,
London, New York, Boston, Edinburgh and Oxford Lieder
Philadelphia, Geneva, Madrid, Festivals. In the 2018/19 season she
Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, curated a Residency at Wigmore Hall.
23
Joseph Middleton
Pianist Joseph Middleton specializes
in the art of song accompaniment and
chamber music and has been highly
acclaimed in this field. Described in
Opera Magazine as ‘the rightful heir to
legendary accompanist Gerald Moore’,
by BBC Music Magazine as ‘one of the
brightest stars in the world of song and
Lieder’, he has also been labeled ‘the
cream of the new generation’
by The Times. He is Director of Leeds
Lieder, Musician in Residence and
a Bye Fellow at Pembroke College,
Cambridge and a Fellow of his alma
mater, the Royal Academy of Music,
where he is also a Professor. He was
the first accompanist to win the
Royal Philharmonic Society’s
Young Artist Award.
Joseph is a frequent guest at major
music centres including London’s
Wigmore Hall (where he has been a
featured artist), Royal Opera House
24
and Royal Festival Hall, New York’s
Alice Tully Hall and Park Avenue
Armory, Het Concertgebouw
Amsterdam, Konzerthaus and
Musikverein Vienna, Zürich Tonhalle,
Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Berlin
BoulezSaal, Kölner Philharmonie,
Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Lille and
Gothenburg Opera Houses, Baden-
Baden, Philharmonie Luxembourg,
Musée d’Orsay Paris, Oji Hall Tokyo
and Festivals in Aix-en-Provence,
Aldeburgh, Barcelona, Schloss Elmau,
Edinburgh, Munich, Ravinia, San
Francisco, Schubertiade Hohenems
and Schwarzenberg, deSingel, Soeul,
Stuttgart, Toronto and Vancouver.
He made his BBC Proms debut in
2016 alongside Iestyn Davies and
Carolyn Sampson and returned in
2018 alongside Dame Sarah Connolly
where they premiered recently
discovered songs by Benjamin Britten.
Joseph enjoys recitals with
internationally established singers
including Sir Thomas Allen, Louise
Alder, Mary Bevan, Ian Bostridge,
Allan Clayton, Dame Sarah Connolly,
Marianne Crebassa, Iestyn Davies,
Fatma Said, Samuel Hasselhorn,
Christiane Karg, Katarina Karnéus,
Angelika Kirchschlager, Dame
Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman,
John Mark Ainsley, Ann Murray DBE,
James Newby, Mark Padmore, Mauro
Peter, Miah Persson, Sophie Rennert,
© Marco Borggreve
Ashley Riches, Dorothea Röschmann,
Kate Royal, Carolyn Sampson, Nicky
Spence and Roderick Williams.
He has a special relationship with
BBC Radio 3, frequently curating his
own series and performing alongside
and International Classical Music
the BBC Radio 3 New Generation
Awards. His interest in the furthering
Artists. His critically acclaimed and
of the song repertoire has led
fast-growing discography has seen
Gramophone Magazine to describe
him awarded a Diapason D’or, Edison
him as ‘the absolute king
Award and Priz Caecilia as well as
of programming’.
receiving numerous nominations for
Gramophone, BBC Music Magazines www.josephmiddleton.com
25
Recorded in St. George’s Bristol, Bristol, UK
on 27th, 28th and 30th April 2021
Producer, Recording Engineer & Editor Andrew Mellor
Cover Image & Artwork Design Marshall Light Studio

With thanks to Sir Martin Smith and Lady Smith OBE

for supporting this ongoing Mahler Lieder project.

2023 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Signum Records.

© 2023 The copyright in this CD booklet, notes and design is owned by Signum Records.
Any unauthorised broadcasting, public performance, copying or re-recording of Signum Compact Discs
constitutes an infringement of copyright and will render the infringer liable to an action by law. Licences for public
performances or broadcasting may be obtained from Phonographic Performance Ltd. All rights reserved. No
part of this booklet may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission from Signum Records Ltd.
Signum Records, Suite 14, 21 Wadsworth Road, Perivale, Middlesex UB6 7LQ, UK.
+44 (0) 20 8997 4000 | E-mail: info@signumrecords.com | signumrecords.com SIGCD741
26 27