Густав Малердің әндер жинағы: Рюккерт Liedері

Collection of songs by Gustav Mahler

The Rückert Lieder (Songs after Rückert) is a collection of five Lieder for voice and orchestra or piano by Gustav Mahler, based on poems written by Friedrich Rückert. Four of the songs ("Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder! ", "Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft", "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen", and "Um Mitternacht") were written in the summer of 1901 at Maiernigg, with one ("Liebst du um Schönheit") completed in the summer of 1902, also in Maiernigg. Both smaller in orchestration and briefer than Mahler's previous Des Knaben Wunderhorn settings, the collection marked a change of style from the childlike, often satirical Wunderhorn settings, to a more lyrical, contrapuntal style. The collection is often linked with the Kindertotenlieder, Mahler's other settings of Rückert's poetry, and with the 5th Symphony, and both were composed concurrently with the collection and contain subtle references to the Rückert Lieder. The Rückert Lieder (without "Liebst du um Schönheit") were premiered, alongside the Kindertotenlieder and several Wunderhorn settings, in Vienna on 29 January 1905 by Mahler and members of the Vienna Philharmonic, sung by Anton Moser and Friedrich Weidemann. The songs met with a positive reception, though they were overshadowed by the Kindertotenlieder and the Wunderhorn settings which were performed, along with the Rückert Lieder, in a repeat performance on 3 February 1905. The songs were first published as a collection in their versions for piano accompaniment in 1905, and later re published, in full score, along with the Der Knaben Wunderhorn settings of "Revelge" and "Der Tamboursg’sell" in Sieben Lieder aus letzter Zeit (Seven Songs of Latter Days) in 1910. The Rückert Lieder, along with the Kindertotenlieder and the 5th Symphony, are considered to be a turning point in Mahler's oeuvre, and many elements of these songs would anticipate later works such as Das Lied von der Erde.

In 1897, Mahler became the director of the Vienna Hofoper. Over the following years his compositional output dwindled due to over work and ill health; between 1897 and 1900, he only completed the Fourth Symphony and the Des Knaben Wunderhorn setting ‘Revelge’. Eventually Mahler suffered a near fatal haemorrhage on the night of February 24, 1901, requiring emergency treatment, an operation, and a seven week long recuperation. From June to August 1901, Mahler spent his vacation at his newly completed lakeside villa near Maiernigg. Its isolation meant the summer was peaceful, and he experienced the most productive summer of his life, completing two movements of the Fifth Symphony and eight Lieder, including four of the Rückert Lieder.

Mahler subsequently performed two of the Rückert Lieder, namely 'Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen', sung by Weidemann, and 'Um Mitternacht', sung by Erik Schmedes, in a concert at the Graz Festival, on June 1, 1905. Mahler again conducted, with the orchestra comprising 23 members of the Konzertverin Orchestra and "professors from the Steiermäkischer Muisverein," as well as members of the Vienna Philharmonic that accompanied Mahler to Graz. The acclaim from the audience was apparently so spontaneous that the fellow composers in the hall, as well as those who regularly criticised Mahler, booed him off in envy. Again critics, even those who were biased against Mahler's work, praised this triumph, with Ernst Decsey saying "Each song was incontestably a 'phenomenon' unto itself, because of the 'absolutely unprecedented [sonority] of his chamber orchestra." These reports paved the way for the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik to publish a long article about Mahler's Lieder later in 1905. In 1911, the Grazer Volksblatt, reminiscing on the concert in the wake of Mahler's death, would write that "few eyes remained dry in the concert hall" and that "the audience surrounded [Mahler] with acclamation, gratitude, and genuine love." On February 14, 1907, Mahler accompanied Johannes Messchaert at the piano in a recital at the Bösendorfer Saal in Berlin, consisting of five early Wunderhorn settings, the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, the Kindertotenlieder, and the same four Rückert Lieder as at the collection's premiere. An unsigned article in the Vossiche Zeitung wrote that there had been a "sizeable audience", alluded to the Graz concert, and said the Rückert Lieder were "certainly among the best songs that Mahler had composed". Paul Bekker in the Allgemeine Musik Zeitung again repeated the criticism that the songs were occasionally "sentimental." Otto Klemperer later recalled that the concert was "wonderfully compelling" and "quite unbelievable." Messchaert and Mahler would later perform two of the Rückert Lieder at a concert in Cologne on July 1, again to acclaim.