The two most significant song writers of classical music engage in dialogue on this evening, two composers who were socialized in Vienna and shaped by the intellectual milieu of the Habsburg imperial city: Gustav Mahler and Franz Schubert. Mahler, who was an admirer of Schubert, spent many years studying the Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of folk song lyrics published in 1805, during Schubert's lifetime, and transformed the themes it contained (love, death, the supernatural world, spiritual purity) into songs with astonishing inventiveness. The first half of the concert will feature a discussion on the extent to which Mahler's world was influenced by Schubert and what Schubert anticipated in Mahler, while the second half will feature Mahler's songs performed by the hyper-sensitive German baritone Johannes Held. The language of the discussion is Hungarian.

Further concerts in this series:
25 January 2026 6 PM – Gábor Csalog Sundays – Dialogues with (the) Music | Chopin and Mendelssohn
22 March 2026 6 PM – Gábor Csalog Sundays – Dialogues with (the) Music | Schumann and Brahms
17 May 2026 6 PM – Gábor Csalog Sundays – Dialogues with (the) Music | Kurtág and the Music History