Rennert/Konradi/Peter/Keenlyside/Middleton (Signum) This collection of songs that the composer wrote as a young man is full of interest and emotion. Pianist Joseph Middleton brings sensitive support and an array of illustrative colours The second volume in Signum’s survey of Mahler song focuses on the three books of Lieder und Gesänge that the composer worked on in his 20s, rounding off the album with his first vocal masterpiece, the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. These early ditties are highly individual, often quirky and invariably full of interest. Joseph Middleton, whose instinctual pacing and sensitive support of the vocal line is matched by an array of illustrative colours drawn from the piano, has assembled a fine cast of singers. Sophie Rennert opens with Frühlingsmorgen, her full-bodied mezzo and expressive diction mining this lilting Viennese gem for textual nuance. She’s equally persuasive in Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald, one of Mahler’s most luminous songs. Ablösung im Sommer, a bizarre celebration of a cuckoo that has fallen off its perch, is given a deliciously theatrical workout by Katharina Konradi.