Rückert-Lieder

Gustav Mahler's Rückert–Lieder (1901–1902) are a set of five German art songs (Lieder) on Friedrich Rückert poems, scored for voice and orchestra or piano. Composed over two summers at Maiernigg, they are shorter and more intimate than Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy's Magic Horn, 1892–1901), marking a shift from its childlike, often satirical idiom toward a more contrapuntal, lyrical style. They are linked to the contemporaneous Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children, also setting Rückert) and Symphony No. 5, and foreshadow Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth, 1908).

All but the last song premiered in Vienna on January 29, 1905, conducted by Mahler with baritones Anton Moser (1872–1909) and Friedrich Weidemann, and members of the Vienna Philharmonic. They were well received but overshadowed by a program of Wunderhorn selections and the Kindertotenlieder. Published for voice and piano that year, they appeared in full score as part of Sieben Lieder aus letzter Zeit (Seven Songs of Latter Days, 1910; including Wunderhorn songs "Revelge" and "Der Tamboursg'sell").