What the Wild Flowers tell me

Britten made this adaptation in 1941, at the suggestion of his publisher Erwin Stein. At that time, Mahler’s symphonies were not the staple concert-fare that they are today, and Britten’s arrangement was an attempt to bring this composer, for whom he felt a special affinity, to the attention of a wider audience. The arrangement preserves the essence of Mahler’s original, but in a practical version for reduced orchestra.