Every lover of late Romantic Lieder knows Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a treasure trove of folk melodies arrayed in glittering orchestrations. Some even know the Wunderhorn songs in their less common, but no less charming, guise as songs with piano accompaniment. But while the orchestral version of the Wunderhorn are genuine Mahler, the customarily used transcriptions of the orchestral version for piano aren't by Mahler at all; they are by an anonymous individual working for his publishers. These transcriptions were ...
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Every lover of late Romantic Lieder knows Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a treasure trove of folk melodies arrayed in glittering orchestrations. Some even know the Wunderhorn songs in their less common, but no less charming, guise as songs with piano accompaniment. But while the orchestral version of the Wunderhorn are genuine Mahler, the customarily used transcriptions of the orchestral version for piano aren't by Mahler at all; they are by an anonymous individual working for his publishers. These transcriptions were never intended to be used in concert performances but merely to serve as rehearsal accompaniments for singers. That these transcriptions were ever used for concerts performances is apparently all a big mistake.This is a mistake which baritone Thomas Hampson and pianist Geoffrey Parsons correct in the premiere recording of the Wunderhorn songs. Along with the orchestral versions, Mahler himself prepared a piano version of the songs, versions he thought to be equal to but distinct from the...
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