Gustav Mahler Festival Steinbach

Natalie Bauer-Lechner: Mahler's confidante, pioneer of her time.

"What I thank the Deity for most is that she allowed my life [...] to encounter Mahler."
- Natalie Bauer-Lechner in her will

Natalie Bauer-Lechner was a violist and close confidant of the family around Mahler and his siblings for over 10 years. During the summers of 1893 to 1896, she was a constant guest in Steinbach, coordinating the construction of the composer's cottage and accompanying Mahler on countless excursions.
As a musician and admirer of Gustav, she recorded her conversations with the composer with a richness and detail that make these recollections irreplaceable today. But Bauer-Lechner was also an author, a fighter for human rights, a feminist, a pacifist: a woman ahead of her time.

Program:

Wednesday, 6 July 2022
Book presentation: Unpublished text from Bauer-Lechner's diaries
from the new edition by Stephen Hefling and Morten Solvik
Special Event: Experiencing Mahler - a dinner of a special kind

Thursday, 7 July 2022
Festive opening: Natalie Bauer-Lechner in song and word

Friday, July 8, 2022
Panel Discussion: Natalie Bauer-Lechner and the Women's Movement at the Turn of the Century
Moderation: Irene Suchy
Film screening: "My time will come" - about Mahler and Bauer-Lechner
(with film footage from Steinbach), with introduction by director Beate Thalberg
Concert: Chamber music evening - with a program by the string quartet Soldat-Röger
Bauer-Lechner was violist of the ensemble from 1894 to 1914
Soloists of the 1st Women's Chamber Orchestra Vienna

Saturday, 9 July 2022
Adventure hike: In the footsteps of Mahler and Natalie around Steinbach
based on Bauer-Lechner's memories
Concert: Song recital - works by Gustav Mahler and Alma Mahler with Florian Boesch

Sunday, 10 July 2022
Matinee: Chamber Orchestra
Dvorak: Gypsy/Folk Songs from Opp. 55 and 73
Knussen: Ophelia Dances, Book 1
Mahler: Symphony No. 1
John Warner with members of the Orchestra for the Earth

Program subject to change!