The Artist:
Austrian Romantic composer of huge symphonies, as well as songs and song-cycles. Mahler wrote music of great intensity and orchestral transparency and in his day was a conductor of international stature.
Info:
The Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection Symphony, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. The fourth movement, Urlicht, is a Wunderhorn song, sung by an alto, which serves as an introduction to the Finale. The song, set in the remote key of D-flat major, illustrates the longing for relief from worldly woes, leading without a break to the response in the Finale.
