Recently Discovered Letter Sheds New Light on Gustav Mahler
(PRWEB) July 17, 2014 -- A recently discovered letter by a close friend of Gustav Mahler provides fresh insight into the private life of one of the world’s greatest composers. Natalie Bauer-Lechner’s detailed diary of her association with Mahler has long been a key source of first-hand information for scholars of the famous composer’s life and work. However, at the time of writing, she chose not to include her recollections of his love life and decided instead to recount them in a 60-page letter to friend and colleague Hans Riehl to be published after her death. It is this letter that has recently been found and has now been introduced, translated, and annotated by Morten Solvik and Stephen E. Hefling. It is being published for the first time in the journal The Musical Quarterly.
"In this issue, The Musical Quarterly brings to light a newly discovered document--certain to be controversial--about Gustav Mahler's relationship to women, written by a former lover and close friend, the violist Natalie Bauer-Lechner, whose widely cited accounts of Mahler, his creative process and opinions have long been regarded as basic sources for our understanding of the composer,” says Leon Botstein, editor of The Music Quarterly. “This new document not only raises questions about Mahler's private life, but about the reliability of Bauer-Lechner as a witness and how biography in Mahler's case has dominated our understanding of the music."
Some of the relationships mentioned in Bauer-Lechner’s letter have long been suspected, including her own romantic involvement with the composer. What Bauer-Lechner’s letter does is not only corroborate these affairs firsthand but also sheds more nuanced light than ever available on the emotional character of Mahler, his relationship to his sister Justine, his reactions to difficult interpersonal situations, his sometimes fickle nature, even his views on sexuality.
Jonathan Kroberger, Oxford University Press USA, 212-743-6243 Ext: x6243, [email protected]
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