Maazel: Mahler Cycle 2011

The songs of Des Knaben Wunderhorn ("The Youth’s Magic Horn") form the basis for so much of Mahler’s music that it pays to hear some of them alongside a symphony (in the case the well-known Fifth Symphony, in the latest of the Philharmonia/Maazel collaborations). The performances of six of the songs by Sarah Connolly and Matthias Goerne gave a clear idea of the emotional power that they contain.