Gustav Mahler was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect, which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 his compositions were rediscovered by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century. In 2016, a BBC Music Magazine survey of 151 conductors ranked three of his symphonies in the top ten symphonies of all time.
The Symphony No. 1 in D major by Gustav Mahler was mainly composed between late 1887 and March 1888, though it incorporates music Mahler had composed for previous works. It was composed while Mahler was second conductor at the Leipzig Opera, Germany. Although in his letters Mahler almost always referred to the work as a symphony, the first two performances described it as a symphonic poem and as a tone poem in symphonic form respectively. The work was premièred at the Vigadó Concert Hall, Budapest, in 1889, but was not well received. Mahler made some major revisions for the second performance, given at Hamburg in October 1893; further alterations were made in the years prior to the first publication, in late 1898. Some modern performances and recordings give the work the title Titan, despite the fact that Mahler only used this label for the second and third performances, and never after the work had reached its definitive four-movement form in 1896.
Des Knaben Wunderhorn: Alte deutsche Lieder is a collection of German folk poems and songs edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, and published in Heidelberg, Baden. The book was published in three editions: the first in 1805 followed by two more volumes in 1808.
The Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo has been awarded since 1959. There have been several minor changes to the name of the award over this time:
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen is a song cycle by Gustav Mahler on his own texts. The cycle of four Lieder for medium voice was written around 1884–85 in the wake of Mahler's unhappy love for soprano Johanna Richter, whom he met while conductor of the opera house in Kassel, Germany, and orchestrated and revised in the 1890s.
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, particularly "Winterreise" of which his recordings with accompanists Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release.
Yvonne Fay Minton CBE is an Australian-born but mostly British-resident opera singer. She is variously billed as a soprano, mezzo-soprano or contralto.
The songs of Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Gustav Mahler are voice-and-piano and voice-and-orchestra settings of German folk poems chosen from a collection of the same name assembled by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano and published by them, in heavily redacted form, between 1805 and 1808.
Sir Andrew Frank Davis is an English conductor. He is music director and principal conductor of Lyric Opera of Chicago and conductor laureate of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Oskar Fried was a German conductor and composer, and was known as a great admirer of Gustav Mahler, whose works he performed a great many times throughout his life. Fried was also the first conductor to record a Mahler symphony. Fried also held the distinction of being the first foreign conductor to perform in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution (1922). He eventually left his homeland in 1933 to work in the Soviet Union after the political rise of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party, and became a Soviet citizen in 1940. In 1899, Fried married the amateur poetess Augusta (Gusti) Rathgeber (1872-1926) and had two daughters with her, Monika and Emerentia. From 1892, Gusti Rathgeber had been married to German poet Otto Julius Bierbaum but left him when she and Fried met, and fell in love with each other.
Norman Foster was an American operatic bass-baritone, a film and television actor and a television producer.
Mahler Songs is a 40-minute studio album on which Gustav Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, his Rückert-Lieder and two of the songs from his Lieder aus "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" are performed by Frederica von Stade and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Andrew Davis. It was released in 1979.
Christian Gerhaher is a German baritone and bass singer in opera and concert, particularly known as a Lieder singer.
Gerold Huber is a German classical pianist, best known as the regular duo partner of baritone Christian Gerhaher and accompanist of other singers.
Hermine Haselböck is an Austrian mezzo-soprano in opera, concert and lied.
The orchestral song is a late romantic genre of classical music for solo voices and orchestra.
Siegfried Lorenz is a German baritone who performs opera, oratorio and Lied. A member of the Komische Oper Berlin and later the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, he made award-winning recordings and appeared as a guest internationally. He has been an academic voice teacher in Berlin and Hamburg.
Mahler Symphony No. 4 is a 57-minute studio album that the operatic mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Claudio Abbado. It was released in 1978.
The following lists note recordings in opera and recital of soprano Jessye Norman.
