Rückert-Lieder

The Rückert-Lieder (Songs after Rückert) is a collection of five Lieder for voice and orchestra or piano by Gustav Mahler, setting poems by Friedrich Rückert to music. Four of the songs ("Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!", "Ich atmet' einen linden Duft", "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen", and "Um Mitternacht") were written in the summer of 1901 at Maiernigg, with one ("Liebst du um Schönheit") completed in the summer of 1902, also in Maiernigg. Both smaller in orchestration and briefer than Mahler's previous Des Knaben Wunderhorn settings, the collection marked a change of style from the childlike, often satirical Wunderhorn settings, to a more lyrical, contrapuntal style. The collection is often linked with the Kindertotenlieder, Mahler's other settings of Rückert's poetry, and with the 5th Symphony, and both were composed concurrently with the collection and contain subtle references to the Rückert-Lieder.

The Rückert-Lieder (without "Liebst du um Schönheit") were premiered, alongside the Kindertotenlieder and several Wunderhorn settings, in Vienna on 29 January 1905 by Mahler and members of the Vienna Philharmonic, sung by Anton Moser (1872–1909) and Friedrich Weidemann. The songs met with a positive reception, though they were overshadowed by the Kindertotenlieder and the Wunderhorn settings which were performed, along with the Rückert-Lieder, in a repeat performance on 3 February 1905. The songs were first published as a collection in their versions for piano accompaniment in 1905, and later re-published, in full score, along with the Der Knaben Wunderhorn settings of "Revelge" and "Der Tamboursg’sell" in Sieben Lieder aus letzter Zeit (Seven Songs of Latter Days) in 1910.