Natalie Bauer-Lechner on Mahler and Women: A Newly Discovered Document
| Autor: | Morten Solvik, Stephen E. Hefling |
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| Rok vydání: | 2014 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | The Musical Quarterly. 97:12-65 |
| ISSN: | 1741-8399 0027-4631 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/musqtl/gdu002 |
| Popis: | Truly intimate portraits of composers are as invaluable as they are rare. Occasionally, sources reveal subjects in candid detail, sharing their views with caring and comprehending contemporaries in whom they placed their trust. Among all such sources pertaining to Gustav Mahler, none has proven more informative and significant than the recollections and reflections of Natalie Bauer-Lechner (1858‐1921), a woman keenly devoted to the composer, who kept a detailed diary during the roughly ten years of their deep friendship between 1890 and 1901. An accomplished violinist and violist who had met Mahler while he was student at the Conservatory, Bauer-Lechner went on to have a distinguished career as a member of the Soldat-Roeger String Quartet; she became a close acquaintance of Mahler and his siblings, often accompanying them on summer holidays. Hundreds of handwritten pages (many of which are lost or destroyed) document their encounters and conversations, sometimes preserving Mahler’s words verbatim. Bauer-Lechner’s journal constitutes a singular achievement, reflecting a considerable presence of mind about her privileged access to a man who, she was profoundly convinced, was endowed with uncommon musical genius. Fortunately for us, Bauer-Lechneralso possessed remarkable attributes appropriate to the task: an almost obsessive need to write down her impressions, an objectivity driven by an awareness of history peering over her shoulder, and, as a professional musician, a considerable capacity to follow the composer’s thoughts into the world of inspiration and creativity. In her 1907 book Fragmente, a collection of observations on a host of topics ranging from literature to hygiene, from socialism to sexuality, Bauer-Lechner straightforwardly sets forth her goals as a chronicler |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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