Recollections of Gustav Mahler

268 Pages·2013·8.218 MB·English

by  Natalie Bauer-Lechner

[CISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY
Recollections oj Gustav abler /
Natalie Bauer-Lechner
Translated by Dika Ne
Edited by Peter Frankli.
This is the first English edition of one of
the most important early memoirs of
Mahler. Compiled from a private journal,
only published after its author’s death,
these recollections are an invaluable
record of Mahler’s personal, professional
and creative life during the last decade
of the nineteenth century. A large part
of the book recounts, at first hand,
conversations with Mahler concerning
his works and his ideas about performance
(both in the opera-house and on the
concert platform).
Natalie Bauer-Lechner (1858-1921)
was herself a musician (a viola player)
and a close and devoted friend of the
composer until his marriage to Alma
Schindler in 1902. She visited Mahler
in Hamburg and frequented his circle in
Vienna, also accompanying him and his
family on a number of the summer
vacations during which the Second,
Third and Fourth Symphonies came
into being, together with many of the
Wunderhorn songs.
Dr Peter Franklin is a Lecturer in
Music at the University of Leeds.
Jacket illustrations
Front: The villa built by Mahler in i8gg beside the
Worther See in Carinthia, southern Austria. In a
summer-house high in the woods behind the villa
he completed his Fourth Symphony. His Fifth,
Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Symphonies and the
later songs were also composed here.
Back: first page of a letter, dated 16 November
igoo, written by Natalie Bauer-Lechner to
Ludwig Karpath, a Viennese music critic.
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Recollections of Gustav Mahler

Recollections of
Gustav Mahler
by Natalie Bauer-Lechner
TRANSLATED BY
DIKA NEWLIN
EDITED AND
ANNOTATED BY
PETER FRANKLIN
University Press
CAMBRIDGE
LONDON NEW YORK NEW ROCHELLE
MELBOURNE SYDNEY
This edition first published in 1980
Published in the USA and Canada by
the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge
32 East 57th Street, New York, ny 10022 usa
English translation and annotations © 1980
by Faber Music Ltd
Original German edition Erinnerungen an Gustav Mahler
First published in 1923 by E. P. Tal and Co. Verlag,
Leipzig, Vienna, Zurich
Copyright 1923 by E. P. Tal & Co. Verlag
Printed in Great Britain by
Latimer Trend & Company Ltd
S. F. PUBLIC LIBRARY
Library of Congress' Cataloging in Publication Data
Bauer-Lechner, Natalie.
Recollections of Gustav Mahler.
1. Mahler, Gustav.
2. Composers—Austria—Biography.
I. Title II. Franklin, Peter.
780/.92/4 ML410.M23 80-834
ISBN o 521 23572 3
3 1223 00401 9692
Contents
i $
Foreword 9
Introduction to the first edition 19
Early history of my friendship with Gustav Mahler 23
Part 1 Mahler abroad
Visit to Budapest 27
Steinbach am Attersee (July and August 1893) 29
The Andante of the Second Symphony - The significance of Beethoven
- The symphony and life - The mystical aspect of creation - ‘Das
irdische Leben and the ‘Fischpredigt’ - The ‘Rheinlegendchen - The
work and its effect - A conductor’s tribulations - The brutality of
noise - Brahms and Bruckner - Evaluation of Liszt - The greatness of
Wagner - Spiritual and physical birth
Steinbach am Attersee (summer 1893) 40
Visit to Hamburg (January 1896) 42
The performance of the Second Symphony in Berlin - The meaning
of the Second Symphony - Orchestral technique and notation
In Hamburg again (mid-February 1896) 47
Mahler concert in Berlin f 16 March 1896) 49
The rehearsals - The concert - Concern for the future
Easter visit to Hamburg (April 1896) 52
‘ What the flowers tell me’ - Uncanny visions - Martyrdom
5
CONTENTS
Steinbach am Attersee (summer 1896) 55
In the ‘ Schniitzelputz-Hausel’ - War on the disturbers of the peace
- Early works - Truth and simplicity - Conversations about the Third
Symphony - On instrumentation - Home and childhood - Trials of
strength - Lipiner and Mahler
Reunion in Hamburg ( September/October 1896) 73
Mahler’s way of life - Clarity of line - The first movement of the
Third Symphony - The printing of the Second Symphony
Trial concert in Munich (24 March 1897) 78
The call to Vienna 80
Mahler’s personality and appearance 81
Part 11 Mahler in Vienna
The opera season (May to summer 1897) 89
Debut - An anonymous letter - Size of the orchestra - Der Freischiitz
- Musical involvement - Uneven tempo
Summer 1897 96
Deputy Director - Natural sounds as the source of music
The 1897-1898 season 98
The Ring Cycle - Dalibor - Appointment as Director - The Magic
Flute - The claque - ‘Master in his own house’ - The Flying
Dutchman - Beating time - ‘ To him that hath shall be given - In
the Director’s box - Wrong tempi: the ‘Eroica’ - On tempi and a
feeling for Nature - Dissatisfaction - Dealings with one’s superiors -
Das klagende Lied - Homophony and polyphony
6