Deutsche Grammophon Releases Hampson's Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Baritone Thomas Hampson celebrates two consecutive anniversaries for Mahler (2010 is the 150th anniversary of his birth and 2011 marks the 100th anniversary of his death) in performance, on recording and with special events around the world. On December 21, 2010 Deutsche Grammophon will release Hampson's all-new recording of Des Knaben Wunderhorn which will be followed by performances with the New York Philharmonic of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder January 6-8, 2011.

Thomas Hampson has a long association with both Deutsche Grammophon and the music of Gustav Mahler. In 1989 Hampson released a recording of the Kindertotenlieder followed by recordings of both the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Rückert-Lieder in 1991. All three song cycles were recorded with none other than Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic.

To these three cycles Hampson adds the fourth major collection of songs by Mahler, Des Knaben Wunderhorn. For this unique recording the baritone is joined by the Wiener Virtuosen, a conductor-less ensemble comprised of principal players of the Vienna Philharmonic. Hampson's decision to work with a smaller group of musicians rather than a full orchestra reflects his desire to capture the "Kammerton" - "chamber tone" - that Mahler proposed for these songs, most notably in correspondence with Richard Strauss. The orchestrations heard on the new recording are exactly as Mahler wrote them, but the reduced forces enhance the chamber-music style of dialogue between instruments and voice that Mahler sought in order to maximize the expressive intent of the words.

Currently, everyone is invited to listen to the entire album for free as part of NPR Music's popular "First Listen" series until the album is released on December 21, 2010.

To continue the celebration, which began earlier this year and will extend well into 2011, Thomas Hampson travels to New York to perform with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic in a series of concerts featuring Mahler's Kindertotenlieder. After these performances (January 6-8, 2011) Hampson will then travel downtown to discuss and perform songs by Mahler, Schubert, Schumann and others in front of a live studio audience at the Jerome L. Greene Performance Space at WQXR on January 10. The event will be broadcast live at 7pm on Classical 105.9 FM WQXR and www.wqxr.org and available as a live video webcast at www.thegreenespace.org.

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