Focus Fierce: Simon Keenlyside Sings Mahler | Adella

MAHLER Selected Songs from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” and “Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit” MAHLER Symphony No. 7 The great baritone Simon Keenlyside, a peerless interpreter of art song, performs transcendent selections from Mahler’s “Des Knaben Wunderhorn” and playful, rustic picks from his “Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit”. Longtime friend and collaborator Franz Welser-Möst and The Cleveland Orchestra join him for those luminous works, recorded at the Vienna Konzerthaus in 2023, before closing out the program with the night-veiled mystery of Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. In an intimate, wide-ranging interview, Keenlyside also muses on the solitary nature that is the lot of a performing artist, but also the lifetime of wandering and nature explorations that a storied career has allowed him. He shares thoughts about storytelling and the human condition, his unending pursuit of finding just the right color to convey the composer’s intent, and the preparation and “focus fierce” required before divesting oneself on the platform “to try to let your master speak through you.” The Cleveland Orchestra Franz Welser-Möst, conductor Simon Keenlyside, baritone