During the Mahler Festival, the Recital Hall is dedicated to Mahler’s most beautiful songs. Perhaps today’s most important Lieder accompanist, pianist Julius Drake, flanks vocalists he admires. Today, these are mezzo-soprano Ema Nikolovska and bass-baritone Jusung Gabriel Park.

In Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Mahler chose his favourite texts from the very old German collection of the same name. He composed twelve sometimes fairy-tale-like songs. Love, faith, heroic deeds… everything floats by. They are sung by Macedonian-Canadian Ema Nikolovska and South Korean Jusung Gabriel Park. The latter is making his Amsterdam debut. Drake chooses to have some songs sung by the soloists together. ‘Even though they are not necessarily written as such, there are often clearly two characters speaking,’ he said in Preludium. ‘And as a duet they work really beautifully.’