Agata Zubel is one of the most talented singers of our times. Together with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra under the direction of Ernst Kovacic, she will present four song cycles. Two of them are popular and frequently performed works by Gustav Mahler. The other two are the works of his wife, Alma. These are excellent, although rarely performed compositions.

The series Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, or Songs of a travelling journeyman, was completed by Mahler in 1885. The impulse for writing it was an unrequited affection for the singer Johanna Richter, whom the artist met in Kassel, where he was the conductor of the local opera theatre. The four songs, characterized by great expressive power and appeal of melody, are among the most frequently performed works by this composer. Mahler was so strongly attached to them that he used two of them as thematic material for the Symphony No. 1, which was being written at the same time. The Rückert-Lieder is five melancholy songs written, as the title suggests, to the texts of the romantic German poet Friedrich Rückert. The most popular among them was Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (I am lost to the world), used in Jim Jarmusch’s film Coffee and Cigarettes.

Alma, who was nineteen years younger than Gustav, also had composing ambitions. Unfortunately, her marriage to Mahler stood in the way of her talent development. He categorically forbade his spouse to take up composing, and she yielded to this demand, and until a certain point she obediently fulfilled the role of an exemplary wife. It was only a deep crisis in their relationship that made the artist pay attention to Alma’s work and even arrange for her songs to be published. During the concert performed by Agata Zubel, we will hear two series: the Fünf Lieder published in 1910 and the Vier Lieder, published in 1915. This expressive music, saturated with decadent mood, clearly proves Ama’s great talent, which, unfortunately, did not have the opportunity to fully develop.