Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau's beautiful performance of Mahler's 'Songs of a Wayfarer', recorded in London in 1952 with the superb Philharmonia Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwängler, is another classic of the gramophone.

Aged 26 at the time, Fischer-Dieskau was at the perfect age to interpret this young man's music, the poems being the composer's own reflections on a broken love affair. 3 years later, in 1955 in Berlin with Rudolf Kempe and the Berliner Philharmoniker, the singer recorded the even darker 'Songs on the death of children'.

To complete the programme, and with the 'superlative' Daniel Barenboim as his accompanist, Fischer-Dieskau, in 1978, sings the 5 Rückertlieder and 5 songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn.