Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss were united by their deep relationship to literature and especially to poetry as a source of inspiration for its musical interpretation and transcendence into a sphere of expression that reflected their own feelings about life. Nevertheless, both composers worked on their texts in very different ways.

While Mahler adjusted the texts through a multitude of interventions - omissions, rearrangements, and even his own additions - according to need and expressive demand, Strauss stuck strictly to the poems.

This new recording is performed by Alois Mhlbacher (countertenor) and Franz Farnberger (piano).