Mahler Songs Sarah Connolly & Joseph Middleton

• Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911): Rückert-Lieder (Version for Voice & Piano):
• 1 Mahler: Rückert-Lieder (Version for Voice & Piano): II. Ich atmet' einen linden Duft! 02:40
• 2 Mahler: Rückert-Lieder (Version for Voice & Piano): I. Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder! 01:33
• 3 Mahler: Rückert-Lieder (Version for Voice & Piano): IV. Um Mitternacht 06:24
• 4 Mahler: Rückert-Lieder (Version for Voice & Piano): V. Liebst du um Schönheit 02:30
• 5 Mahler: Rückert-Lieder (Version for Voice & Piano): III. Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen 07:07
• Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Version for Voice & Piano):
• 6 Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 1, Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht 03:51
• 7 Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 2, Ging heut morgen übers Feld 04:25
• 8 Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 3, Ich hab' ein glühend Messer 03:21
• 9 Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 4, Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz 06:00
• Kindertotenlieder (Version for Voice & Piano):
• 10 Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 1, Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n 05:08
• 11 Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 2, Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen 04:50
• 12 Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 3, Wenn dein Mütterlein 04:29
• 13 Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 4, Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen 02:46
• 14 Mahler: Kindertotenlieder (Version for Voice & Piano): No. 5, In diesem Wetter 06:12
• Total Runtime 01:01:16

Info for Mahler Songs

One of the finest Mahlerians of our time, Dame Sarah Connolly brings her fierce intellect and glorious voice to the music she has spent a lifetime studying and performing.

In the first release of series curated and performed by Joseph Middleton that will champion the complete piano accompanied Lieder of Mahler, the “superlative” (New York Times) duo of Connolly and Middleton present the three great song cycles of Mahler: Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen, Fünf Rückert Lieder and Kindertotenlieder.

This is the first time Sarah has performed all three cycles on one album, which she is justly famous the world over for, performing with rare insight and consummate artistry. Her voice is the perfect Mahlerian instrument.

“It is such an enormous honour to have made this recording for Signum with Sarah, the greatest possible advocate for this repertoire. Sarah and I have been performing together for a decade and the music of Mahler has run through that period of my life like a well-spring, bringing countless hours of profound enjoyment, self-reflection, and indeed gratitude that music of such quality and humanity exists for both performer and audience alike. Mahler’s music can teach us so much about the human condition, our connection with nature and our empathy towards other humans. A deep spirituality is built into every bar he writes. Performing this music with Sarah never fails to teach me something new about being a musician and being an artist and I’m so grateful that Signum have given me the opportunity to record all the piano accompanied songs by Mahler.” - Joseph Middleton

Dame Sarah Connolly, Mezzosopran
Joseph Middleton, Klavier

Sarah Connolly
Born in County Durham, Sarah Connolly studied piano and singing at the Royal College of Music, of which she is now a Fellow. She was made a DBE in the 2017 Birthday Honours, having previously been made a CBE in the 2010 New Year’s Honours. In 2011 she was honoured by the Incorporated Society of Musicians and presented with the Distinguished Musician Award. She is the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s 2012 Singer Award.

Highlights in her 2017/18 season include her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper in a new production of Ariodante, the title role in Giulio Cesare at the Glyndebourne Festival and Brangäne Tristan und Isolde for the Gran Teatro del Liceu.

Past highlights have included Fricka (Covent Garden & Bayreuther Festspiele) Brangäne Tristan und Isolde (Covent Garden & Festspielhaus Baden-Baden); Komponist Ariadne auf Naxos and Clairon Capriccio (Metropolitan Opera); the title role in Giulio Cesare, Brangäne and Gertrude in the world premiere of Brett Dean's Hamlet (Glyndebourne Festival); the title role in Ariodante and Sesto La clemenza di Tito (Festival d’Aix-en-Provence); Purcell’s Dido (Teatro alla Scala & Covent Garden); Jocaste in Enescu's Œdipe (Covent Garden); Gluck’s Orfeo and the title role in The Rape of Lucretia (Bayerische Staatsoper); Phèdre Hippolyte et Aricie (Opéra national de Paris) and the title role in Agrippina and Nerone L’Incoronazione di Poppea (Gran Teatro del Liceu).

She has also sung the title role in Maria Stuarda and Roméo I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Opera North); Komponist (Welsh National Opera) and Octavian Der Rosenkavalier (Scottish Opera). A favorite at the English National Opera, her many roles for the company have included Geschwitz Lulu; Octavian; the title roles in Charpentier’s Medée and Handel's Agrippina, Xerxes, Ariodante and Ruggiero Alcina; the title role in The Rape of Lucretia; Didon Les Troyens; Roméo, Susie The Silver Tassie and Sesto - for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.

The future sees her return to the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, the Opéra national de Paris and make her debut at the Teatro Réal in Madrid.

Her many concert engagements include appearances at the Lucerne, Salzburg, Tanglewood and Three Choirs Festivals and at the BBC Proms where, in 2009, she was a memorable guest soloist at The Last Night. Other notable engagements have included The Dream of Gerontius (Boston Symphony Orchestra/Sir Colin Davis & Mozarteumorchester Salzburg/Bolton); Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 at the BBC Proms (LSO/Haitink); A Child of our Time and Brangäne (Berliner Philharmoniker/Rattle); Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 (Leipzig Gewandhausorchester/Chailly, Boston Symphony Orchestra/von Dohnanyi & Philadelphia Orchestra/Nézet-Séguin); Das Lied von der Erde (Concertgebouworkest/Harding, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra/Nézet-Séguin & LPO/Jurowski); Des Knaben Wunderhorn (L’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées/Herreweghe) and La mort de Cléopâtre (Hallé/Elder, CBSO/Gardner & BBC Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis).

She has appeared in recital in London, New York, Boston, Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Atlanta, Stuttgart; at the Incontri in Terra di Siena La Foce and the Schubertiada Vilabertran and at the Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Edinburgh and Oxford Lieder Festivals.

Committed to promoting new music, her world premiere performances include two re-discovered songs by Benjamin Britten (BBC Proms 2018) with Joseph Middleton; Sir john Tavener's Gnosis, (BBC Proms); songs by Mark Anthony Turnage, Sally Beamish and Dame Judith Weir, Jonathan Harvey.

Joseph Middleton
specializes in the art of song accompaniment and chamber music and has been internationally acclaimed as one of the finest musicians in this field. Described in Opera Magazine as ‘the rightful heir to legendary accompanist Gerald Moore’, by BBC Music Magazine as ‘one of the brightest stars in the world of song and Lieder’, he has also been labelled ‘the cream of the new generation’ by The Times.

He is a passionate advocate for the transformative power of music, and as well as performing and recording world-wide, he is a festival director and sought-after pedagogue. Named ‘the absolute King of programming’ by Gramophone Magazine, Joseph frequently devises series for BBC Radio 3, Wigmore Hall and the University of Cambridge. He is Musician in Residence at, and Bye-Fellow of Pembroke College Cambridge where he curates a series of song recitals and directs the University’s Lieder Scheme. He is a Fellow of his alma mater, the Royal Academy of Music, where he is also a Professor of Ensemble Piano. For the past 11 years he has also been Director of Leeds Song, a Festival recently praised in the Guardian for its ‘World-class’ programming and lauded in The Times for bringing: ‘musical riches to Yorkshire through star performers, engaging new commissions and bold educational projects….a Northern powerhouse of song.’

Joseph is a frequent guest at major music centres including London’s Wigmore Hall, Royal Opera House, Barbican and Royal Festival Hall, New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Park Avenue Armory, Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Konzerthaus and Musikverein Vienna, Zürich Tonhalle, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Berlin BoulezSaal and Philharmonic, Kölner Philharmonie, Teatro de la Zarzuela Madrid, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Lille and Gothenburg Opera Houses, Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Musée d’Orsay Paris, Oji Hall Tokyo and Festivals in Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, Barcelona, Schloss Elmau, Edinburgh, Heidelberger Frühling, Munich, Ravinia, San Francisco, Schubertiade Hohenems and Schwarzenberg, deSingel, Soeul, Stuttgart, Toronto and Vancouver. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2016 alongside Iestyn Davies and Carolyn Sampson and returned in 2018 alongside Dame Sarah Connolly where they premiered recently discovered songs by Benjamin Britten.

Joseph enjoys recitals with internationally established singers including Sir Thomas Allen, Louise Alder, Mary Bevan, Ian Bostridge, Allan Clayton, Dame Sarah Connolly, Marianne Crebassa, Iestyn Davies, Fatma Said, Veronique Gens, Huw Montague Rendall, Elsa Dreisig, Sir Simon Keenlyside, Angelika Kirchschlager, Katharina Konradi, Dame Felicity Lott, Christopher Maltman, John Mark Ainsley, Ann Murray DBE, James Newby, Mark Padmore, Mauro Peter, Miah Persson, Sophie Rennert, Dorothea Röschmann, Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Kate Royal, Carolyn Sampson, Nicky Spence and Roderick Williams.

He has a special relationship with BBC Radio 3, frequently curating his own series and performing alongside the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists. His critically acclaimed and fast-growing discography has seen him awarded a Diapason D’or, Edison Award and Priz Caecilia as well as receiving numerous nominations for ECHO, Opus-Klassik, Gramophone, BBC Music Magazines and International Classical Music Awards. His interest in the furthering of the song repertoire has led him to commission and give the premieres of major new works by important voices including: Thomas Adès, Nico Muhly, Hannah Kendall, Cheryl Frances Hoad, Daniel Kidane, Mark Anthony Turnage, Errollyn Wallen, Helen Grime, Huw Watkins, Brian Elias, Judith Bingham, Ed Nesbitt, Deborah Pritchard, Kate Whitley, Robin Holloway, Michael Berkeley and Sally Beamish among others.

Joseph Middleton was the first, and to date only accompanist to win the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award, the UKs most prestigious award to be bestowed upon a musician.

Booklet for Mahler Songs