Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) is a song cycle for voice and orchestra completed in 1904 by Austro-Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911). The words of the five songs are poems by Friedrich Rückert. Music and texts form a heartbreaking unity throughout the cycle. Four years after the work had been completed Mahler's daughter Maria died of scarlet fever, aged four. Mahler wrote to Guido Adler: "I placed myself in the situation that a child of mine had died. When I really lost my daughter, I could not have written these songs any more." Listening to them in a good performance is a chilling but immensely rewarding experience. It is my favourite song cycle of all time. The average playing time is 24 minutes (AllMusic). I have dozens of recordings, both by male and female singers, but there is one that will always stand out for me: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau with the Berlin Philharmonic under Karl Böhm on a Deutsche Grammophon CD.
