As Fischer explains in his liner notes, he’s paid special attention to how Mahler has notated [glissandi] and the fingerings he’s marked – taking a little detour below the starting note before sliding up to the main note. Here they sound by turns slinky, sultry, sharp, sentimental, exaggerated, but above all evocative of the Viennese world in which Mahler was working.

Its Wunderhorn playfulness offsets a knowing old-world charm where phrases turn on a sixpence and all manner of characterful nuance lifts it out of the commonplace. I love that all the Mahlerian exaggerations and heightened contrasts are in almost wilful defiance of the finesse of the reading...I eagerly anticipate the rest of this Mahler cycle.