Rückert-Lieder

• Mahler composed these five songs between 1901-1902. Mahler was writing many songs to texts by Rückert at the time, including settings in Des Knaben Wunderhorn.¹
• All of these songs were originally published separately, and originally written for piano. These five were included in a cycle of seven collected by Mahler’s published and called Sieben Lieder aus letzter Zeit (Seven Songs from the Last Time); later these five were published separately from that set of seven, called simply Rückert-Lieder.²
• Mahler directed the premiere of the orchestral version on January 29, 1905, with baritone Friedrich Weidemann.³
  • The fifth song included in this set, “Liebst du um Schönheit,” was not included in the original orchestral version of this cycle. It was orchestrated by Max Puttmann in 1912, after Mahler’s death. 

Contents 

Click titles for texts and translations. 

1. Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder! 
2. Ich atmet’ einen linden Duft 
3. Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen 
4. Um Mitternacht 
5. Liebst du um Schönheit 

1. Peter Franklin, “Mahler, Gustav,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed February 11, 2022, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040696.
2. Ibid.
3. Rückert Lieder (Mahler, Gustav),” IMSLP, accessed February 11, 2022, https://imslp.org/wiki/R%C3%BCckert_Lieder_(Mahler%2C_Gustav).