Far more intimate than his symphonies, Mahler’s songs capture in their beauty and frequent poignancy the world of romantic folk-poetry, as in the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (‘Songs of a Wayfarer’). His settings of poems by Rückert include the intensely moving Kindertotenlieder (‘Songs on the death of children’), ironically foreshadowing his own loss.

The renowned baritone Hidenori Komatsu studied at the Tokyo University of Arts and at the Lübeck Musikhochschule with Edith Lang. He has enjoyed a notable collaboration with the conductor Seiji Ozawa, involving, in the 1990s, productions of Salome and Manon Lescaut, and appearances as a soloist in performances of Gounod’s La damnation de Faust, Beethoven’s Choral Symphony and Bach’s St Matthew Passion.