Alma and Gustav Mahler - a fascinating artist couple who lived in circumstances full of tension, both personally and creatively. Alma had to suffer for a long time due to the renunciation of her own compositional activity that Gustav had required of her as a matrimonial promise. It was very difficult for her to develop artistically. Even before her marriage to the famous composer and star conductor Gustav Mahler, the young Alma Schindler, who had studied composition with Alexander Zemlinsky in Vienna, had succeeded in composing several remarkable Lieder. They surprisingly travel along new paths in their direct realisation of the texts' emotional content. Only shortly before his death did Gustav Mahler finally agree to the publication of his wife's early compositions in a revised version. Several Lieder, discovered only later, appear here in their premiere CD recording. The related and yet different expressive worlds of the two personalities Gustav and Alma Mahler reveal themselves in Lied composition in exemplary fashion. Sabine Ritterbusch, since 1993 soloist at the Hamburg State Opera, and Heidi Kommerell explore chasms and high-altitude flights with incredible depth and impressive emotional intensity.
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