Elder conducts Mahler

When Gustav Mahler confronted eternity, he turned to the poetry of classical China. Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) is the result: a symphony that distils every last drop of life’s sorrow and sweetness into six heart-piercing songs. Mahler’s Viennese contemporary Schreker, meanwhile, went for broke: pouring white-hot sensuality and Klimt-like colours into a chamber symphony that positively burst with outsize emotions.