For the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Christmas concert, the great baritone Thomas Hampson and Mariss Jansons, Music Director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra since 2004, got together on stage to perform works by Mahler and Dvořák.
The Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen are a cycle of four songs with orchestra accompaniment that are strongly marked by the young Mahler's experience of love with the singer Johanna Richter in 1884. In it, the composer photographs four moments of wandering with her.
In 1890, Antonin Dvořák composed his Symphony No. 8. The alternation between major and minor, which was very popular with the Czech composer, and the key of G major, make a singular romantic symphony.
