Fünf Lieder für Barbara are Georg Kreisler's last complete compositions. In them, he turned again to serious music. Kreisler's strong bonds to the musical tradition of his native town of Vienna, in this case especially to Franz Schubert, become particularly apparent. In the third song, for example, he takes up the text of Wilhelm Müller's 'Lindenbaum'. But Kreisler's setting with its completely different music material virtually turns Schubert's famous song upside down.