Gustav Mahler's first four symphonies are often referred to as the ‘Wunderhorn Symphonies’ because many of their themes originate in earlier songs by Mahler on texts from ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn’. His Symphony No. 4 in G major, written in 1899 and 1900, is as well built around one of these songs: ‘Das himmlische Leben’ (‘The Heavenly Life’). This song is prefigured in various ways in the first three movements and sung in its entirety by a solo soprano in the fourth movement. ‘Das himmlische Lebe...