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Natalie Bauer-Lechner Was Born on 9Th May 1858 in Vi- Natalie Bauer-Lechner Enna, from Where She Went on Many Trips and Concert Tours Within Europe

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Natalie Bauer-Lechner Was Born on 9Th May 1858 in Vi- Natalie Bauer-Lechner Enna, from Where She Went on Many Trips and Concert Tours Within Europe Bauer-Lechner, Natalie today especially for her book “Recollections of Gustav Mahler” published two years after her death in 1923 by the husband of her niece, Johann Killian, and which is of great significance for the research on Mahler as well as for understanding the music culture of her time. Natalie Bauer-Lechner came from a middle-class Vienne- se family and received violin lessons from the age of five. From 1866 to 1872 she studied violin and piano at the Vi- ennese Music Conservatory where she met Gustav Mah- ler, with whom she was close friends from 1891 onwards up until his engagement to Alma Schindler in 1901. Besi- des her writings on Gustav Mahler she also wrote several texts in which she laid out her spirit of independence and emancipation. Only two texts were published in her lifeti- me: “Fragmente. Gelerntes und Gelebtes” (Fragments. Things Learned and Lived) (1907) and “Schrift über den Krieg” (Writing on the War) (1918) for which according to her family she was charged with high treason in Vien- na and served a longer jail term. Until her death in 1921, Natalie Bauer-Lechner lived and taught as violist, author and music teacher in Vienna. Cities an countries Natalie Bauer-Lechner was born on 9th May 1858 in Vi- Natalie Bauer-Lechner enna, from where she went on many trips and concert tours within Europe. She died on 8th June 1921 in Vien- Natalie Bauer-Lechner na. Birth name: Natalie Anna Juliane Lechner Biography * 9 May 1858 in Wien, Natalie Bauer-Lechner was born on 9th May 1858 in Vi- † 8 June 1921 in Wien, enna as the eldest daughter to the university bookseller and publisher Rudolf Lechner (1822 to 16th August “The only way to put an end to the often outrageously 1895) and his wife Julie von Winiwarter (1831 to 6th De- brutal and scornful manner in which husbands treat cember 1905), daughter of the jurist and university pro- their wives—as if they were lesser beings—to the painful fessor Josef Ritter von Winiwarter. She grew up with a debasement and degradation of both, is through the pecu- younger sister and brother in Vienna. niary independence of the woman and for her to have a Both parents enjoyed playing music. The girls took piano profession as every man that demands respect and reco- lessons beginning at the age of five. When Natalie was gnition from him, as one of his most capable peers.” eight years old she was accepted to the conservatory whe- re she studied from 1866 until 1872 with a major in vio- (Natalie Bauer-Lechner, “Fragmente. Gelerntes und Ge- lin and a minor in piano. lebtes”, Vienna 1907, p. 74.) The sisters, for whom there were no schooling or exam re- quirements, were taught by frequently changing private Profile instructors at home. Their education was extremely spot- Natalie Bauer-Lechner was an Austrian violist and violin ty, which Natalie, in view of her brother’s options, percei- teacher, and as violist a member of the Soldat-Roeger ved as “nameless injustice” (Bauer-Lechner: 1907, p. 84). Quartet from 1895 to 1913. She went on numerous con- She describes herself as a pupil for whom it was hard to cert tours domestically and internationally. She is known learn and remember (ibid. p. 4ff.), but who therefore stu- died all the more thoroughly. Thanks to her great thirst – 1 – Bauer-Lechner, Natalie for knowledge and an “insatiable drive to read” which ac- delssohn Bartholdy, and Johannes Brahms were played. companied her throughout her life, she compensated for Besides the string quartets, chamber music works with her deficient instruction over time. “The happiest hours different ensembles were performed to add variety to the of my early youth were the evenings in my father’s book- programme, such as, for example, solo sonatas for violin shop when after completing a day’s work I could take in played by the violin virtuoso and quartet founder Marie the content of the most wonderful books to my heart’s de- Soldat-Roeger herself, or violin and violoncello sonatas sire. This reading was admittedly random and neither with piano as well as various trios, quintets or octets. purposeful nor topical, rushing from fiction and novels Where necessary, fellow musicians were asked to join as, to all kinds of scientific writings, from which, however, la- for example, the then Viennese “Hofkapellmeister” Bru- cking instruction and a solid basis, I did not gain much no Walter (piano) or the cellist of the Berlin Joachim that was helpful or lasting. Not until later, by divine gui- Quartet, Robert Hausmann, as well as the clarinet player dance, did order, context and fruitfulness affect all that and chamber virtuoso of the Meiningen Orchestra Ri- my mind took in.” (ibid. p. 9). chard Mühlfeld. Mühlfeld regularly gave concerts with In 1875, when she was seventeen years old, she married the women. The clarinet Quintet in B flat minor by Carl the widowed “Hofrat” and professor for chemical techno- Maria von Weber or—most frequently played—the clari- logy at the “Technische Hochschule” (Technical Acade- net quintet in B minor op. 115 by Johannes Brahms be- my) of Vienna, Dr. Alexander Bauer, who brought three longed to the repertoire of this ensemble. minor daughters (aged eleven, eight and one) into the While the concert programme was continually adjusted marriage. Ten years later, in 1885, the marriage ended in and expanded, it was at first limited to practised and well- divorce by mutual agreement (see the letter of the “Tech- known works. In 1897 the work of a contemporary com- nische Hochschule” in Vienna in the matter of Professor poser was performed for the first time: the piano quartet “Hofrat” Dr. Bauer (1836 to 12th April 1921), retirement, in C major op. 6 by Joseph Labor. From 1903 on the wo- on the “k.k. Ministerium für Kultus und Unterricht” (Mi- men increasingly added contemporary works to their pro- nistry for Culture and Education) Vienna, documented in gramme, among them 1888 the premiere of a string quar- Herbert Killian (ed.), “Gustav Mahler in den Erinnerun- tet by Sylvio Lazzari (1857-1944). When evaluating the gen von Natalie Bauer-Lechner” [Gustav Mahler in Nata- programme it must be kept in mind that the musici- lie Bauer-Lechner’s Recollections]. Hamburg, 1984, p. ans—this was true for Marie Soldat-Roeger and Natalie 209; the divorce year given here as 1892 is, however, in- Bauer-Lechner at any rate—earned their living from the correct according to Killian). From now on until her dea- quartet performances, whereas many of their male collea- th, Natalie Bauer-Lechner worked as violist and violin gues were simultaneously members of the Viennese or- teacher in Vienna. From 1895 until 1913 she played the chestra or professors for music at the academies—profes- viola in the women’s string quartet of Marie Soldat-Roe- sions and options for earning a living, in other words, ger (first violin), together with Elly Finger-Bailetti (se- that were closed to women. cond violin, from 1898 Elsa von Plank) and Lucy Herbert- Natalie Bauer-Lechner had already met Gustav Mahler Campbell (violoncello, from 1903 Leontine Gärtner). The at the conservatory as a fellow student two years her ju- quartet, under the conductorship of the Joachim student nior, who as a musician left an “indelible impression” on Marie Soldat-Roeger, debuted on 11th March 1895 in the her (Natalie Bauer-Lechner, quoted by Killian 1984, p. Viennese Bösendorfer-Saal, with, among other things, 17). In the mid 1880’s, the two musicians met again in Vi- the string quartet in C major op. 75 no. 1 by Joseph enna. The friendship, which was based on an in-depth ex- Haydn and the string quartet no. 5 in E-flat major, op. change of thoughts and which was nourished by Bauer- 44,3 by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. From then until Lechner’s regular visits to Mahler where he was current- 1913 the quartet gave regular concerts both domestically ly at work as well as through joint vacations, was very clo- and abroad (see also Silke Wenzel’s article on Marie Sol- se until Mahler’s engagement to Alma Schindler in De- dat-Roeger at http://mugi.hfmt-hamburg.de/grundsei- cember 1901 and marriage in March 1902. The two musi- te/grundseite.php?id=sold1863; on the Soldat-Roeger St- cians not only shared their passion for music and philoso- ring Quartet see Kühnen 2000, p. 58-93). At first, predo- phical questions, but also for sporting activities such as minantly works of the Viennese classics Joseph Haydn, swimming, hiking and above all, cycling. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven, More on Biography as well as Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Felix Men- – 2 – Bauer-Lechner, Natalie Bauer-Lechner recorded the time spent together with her the fact that even after so many most serious tests she highly esteemed friend and the results of numerous con- still has not become ‘rational’ has to do with with the ve- versations on music or the music business in an extensi- ry one-sided formation of her character, in which an unh- ve diary (ca. 30 notebooks). Her visit to Gustav Mahler appy predominance of her emotions over her reason can in Budapest took place in 1890, where he was the opera be recognized in all of her actions. – I already made it director from 1888 to 1891. From then on she regularly perfectly clear to her in the summer in what sensealone a attended rehearsals and premieres of his works, especial- friendly-companionable co-existence could be conceived.
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