Karen Cargill - Mahler: Lieder - Classical Ear

'A husband and wife who are both composers: how do you envisage that? Such a strange relationship between rivals...' So wrote Gustav Mahler to Alma in 1901 prior to their marriage, yet it is an intriguing contrast even today. Alma's entire surviving output consists of 14 songs, of which the set of five recorded here are the earliest (pre-1901, published 1910). In absorbing all the fin de siècle passions of the poets she set Alma displayed a fine gift for lyric line and richly romantic accompaniment which Karen Cargill and Simon Lepper readily seize upon in their penetrating performances...Urlicht, extracted from the Second Symphony, can stand alone and gains in its sense of isolation with piano accompaniment. .