Klara Schumann
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Clara Josephine Schumann (; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital by lessening the importance of purely virtuosic works. She also composed solo piano pieces, a
piano concerto A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpiec ...
( her Op. 7), chamber music, choral pieces, and songs. She grew up in Leipzig, where both her father Friedrich Wieck and her mother Mariane were pianists and piano teachers. In addition, her mother was a singer. Clara was a child prodigy, and was trained by her father. She began touring at age eleven, and was successful in Paris and Vienna, among other cities. She married the composer
Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
, and the couple had eight children. Together, they encouraged
Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
and maintained a close relationship with him. She premiered many works by her husband and by Brahms in public. After Robert Schumann's early death, she continued her concert tours in Europe for decades, frequently with the violinist Joseph Joachim and other chamber musicians. Beginning in 1878, she was an influential piano educator at Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium in Frankfurt, where she attracted international students. She edited the publication of her husband's work. Schumann died in Frankfurt, but was buried in Bonn beside her husband. Several films have focused on Schumann's life, the earliest being ''
Träumerei ' (, "Scenes from Childhood"), Op. 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. History and description Schumann wrote 30 movements for this work but chose 13 for the final version. The unused mov ...
'' (''Dreaming'') of 1944. A 2008 film, '' Geliebte Clara'' (''Beloved Clara''), was directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms. An image of Clara Schumann from an 1835 lithograph by Andreas Staub was featured on the 100 Deutsche Mark banknote from 1989 to 2002. Interest in her compositions began to revive in the late 20th century, and her 2019 bicentenary prompted new books and exhibitions.


Life


Early life


Family

Clara Josephine Wieck was born in Leipzig on 13 September 1819 to Friedrich Wieck and his wife Mariane (''née'' Tromlitz). Her mother was a famous singer in Leipzig who performed weekly piano and soprano solos at the Gewandhaus. Clara's parents had irreconcilable differences, in part due to her father's unyielding nature. Prompted by an affair between her mother and Adolph Bargiel, her father's friend, the Wiecks were divorced in 1825, with Mariane later marrying Bargiel. Five-year-old Clara remained with her father while Mariane and Bargiel eventually moved to Berlin, limiting contact between Clara and her mother to written letters and occasional visits.


Child prodigy

From an early age, Clara's father planned her career and life down to the smallest detail. She started receiving basic piano instruction from her mother at the age of four. After her mother moved out, she began taking daily one-hour lessons from her father. They included subjects such as piano, violin, singing, theory, harmony, composition, and
counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...
. She then had to practice for two hours every day. Her father followed the methods in his own book, ''Wiecks pianistische Erziehung zum schönen Anschlag und zum singenden Ton'' ("Wieck's Piano Education for a Delicate Touch and a Singing Sound.") Her musical studies came largely at the expense of her broader general education, although she still studied religion and languages under her father's control of the family. Clara Wieck made her official debut on 28 October 1828 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, at age nine. The same year, she performed at the Leipzig home of Ernst Carus, director of the mental hospital at Colditz Castle. There, she met another gifted young pianist who had been invited to the musical evening,
Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
, who was nine years older. Schumann admired Clara's playing so much that he asked permission from his mother to stop studying law, which had never interested him much, and take music lessons with Clara's father. While taking lessons, he rented a room in the Wieck household and stayed about a year. From September 1831 to April 1832, Clara toured Paris and other European cities, accompanied by her father. In Weimar, she performed a bravura piece by
Henri Herz Henri Herz (6 January 1803 – 5 January 1888) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and piano manufacturer, Austrian by birth and French by nationality and domicile. He was a professor in the Paris Conservatoire for more than thirty years. Among his ...
for Goethe, who presented her with a medal with his portrait and a written note saying: "For the gifted artist Clara Wieck". During that tour, the violinist Niccolò Paganini, who was also in Paris, offered to appear with her. Her Paris recital was poorly attended because many people had fled the city due to an outbreak of
cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
. The tour marked her transition from a child prodigy to a young woman performer.


Success in Vienna

From December 1837 to April 1838, at the age of 18, Wieck performed a series of recitals in Vienna. Franz Grillparzer, Austria's leading dramatic poet, wrote a poem entitled "Clara Wieck and Beethoven" after hearing her perform Beethoven's '' Appassionata'' sonata during one of these recitals. She performed to sell-out crowds and laudatory critical reviews; Benedict Randhartinger, a friend of Franz Schubert, gave her an autographed copy of Schubert's ''Erlkönig'', inscribing it "To the celebrated artist, Clara Wieck." Chopin described her playing to
Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
, who came to hear one of Wieck's concerts and subsequently praised her extravagantly in a letter that was published in the Parisian ''Revue et Gazette Musicale'' and later, in translation, in the Leipzig journal '' Neue Zeitschrift für Musik''. On 15 March, she was named a ''Königliche und Kaiserliche Österreichische Kammer-virtuosin'' ("Royal and Imperial Austrian Chamber Virtuoso"), Austria's highest musical honor. An anonymous music critic, describing her Vienna recitals, said: "The appearance of this artist can be regarded as epoch-making... In her creative hands, the most ordinary passage, the most routine motive acquires a significant meaning, a colour, which only those with the most consummate artistry can give."


Lasting relationships


Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann was a little more than nine years older than Wieck. In 1837, when she was 18, he proposed to her and she accepted. Robert then asked her father for her hand in marriage. Friedrich was strongly opposed to the marriage, and refused his permission. Robert and Clara decided to go to court and sue him. The judge allowed the marriage, which took place in in Leipzig-Schönefeld on 12 September 1840, the day before Clara's 21st birthday, when she attained majority status. From then on, the couple maintained a joint musical and personal diary of their life together. In February 1854, Robert Schumann had a mental collapse, attempted suicide, and was admitted, at his request, to a sanatorium in the village of Endenich near Bonn, where he stayed for the last two years of his life. In March 1854, Brahms, Joachim,
Albert Dietrich Albert Hermann Dietrich (28 August 182920 November 1908), was a German composer and conductor. In addition to his work, he is remembered for his friendship with Johannes Brahms. Dietrich was born at Golk, near Meissen. From 1851 he studied com ...
, and
Julius Otto Grimm Julius Otto Grimm (6 March 1827 in Pernau, Livonia, now Pärnu, Estonia – 7 December 1903 in Münster) was a German composer, conductor and musician of Westphalia. He is best remembered today as one of the best friends of Johannes Brahms, who ...
spent time with Clara Schumann, playing music for her and with her to divert her mind from the tragedy. Brahms composed some private piano pieces for her to console her: four piano pieces and a set of
variations Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individuals ...
on a
theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (arts), the unifying subject or idea of the type of visual work * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical ...
by Robert Schumann that she had also written variations on a year earlier, as her Op. 20. The music by Brahms was not intended to be published, but for her alone. Brahms later thought to publish them anonymously, but eventually they were issued as his four Ballades, Op. 10, and ''
Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann Variation or Variations may refer to: Science and mathematics * Variation (astronomy), any perturbation of the mean motion or orbit of a planet or satellite, particularly of the moon * Genetic variation, the difference in DNA among individual ...
'', Op. 9. Brahms dedicated the variations to both Schumanns, hoping that Robert would be released soon and rejoined with his family. For the entire two years of Robert Schumann's stay at the institution, his wife was not permitted to visit him, while Brahms visited him regularly. When it was apparent that Robert was near death, she was finally admitted to see him. He appeared to recognize her, but could only speak a few words. Robert Schumann died two days later, on 29 July 1856.


Joseph Joachim

The Schumanns first met violinist Joseph Joachim in November 1844, when he was 14 years old. A year later, Clara Schumann wrote in her diary that in a concert on 11 November 1845, "little Joachim was very much liked. He played a new violin concerto by
Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositions include sy ...
, which is said to be wonderful." In May 1853, they heard Joachim play the solo part in Beethoven's Violin Concerto. She wrote that he played "with a finish, a depth of poetic feeling, his whole soul in every note, so ideally, that I have never heard violin-playing like it, and I can truly say that I have never received so indelible an impression from any virtuoso." A lasting friendship developed between Clara and Joseph, which for more than forty years never failed her in things great or small, never wavered in its loyalty. Over her career, Schumann gave over 238 concerts with Joachim in Germany and Britain, more than with any other artist. The two were particularly noted for their playing of
Beethoven's violin sonatas Ludwig van Beethoven composed the following violin sonatas between 1798 and 1812. * Violin Sonata in A major (Beethoven) The Violin Sonata in A major, Hess 46, is a fragmentary and possibly unfinished work for piano and violin composed by Ludwig va ...
.


Johannes Brahms

In early 1853, the then-unknown 20-year-old
Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...
met Joachim and made a very favorable impression. Brahms received from him a letter of introduction to Robert Schumann, and thus presented himself at the Schumanns' home in Düsseldorf. Brahms played some of his piano solo compositions for the Schumanns, and they were deeply impressed. Robert published an article highly lauding Brahms, and Clara wrote in the diary that Brahms "seemed as if sent straight from God". During Robert Schumann's last years, confined to an asylum, Brahms was a strong presence for the Schumann family. His letters indicate his strong feelings for Clara. Their relationship has been interpreted as somewhere between friendship and love, and Brahms always maintained the utmost respect for her, as a woman and a talented musician. Brahms played his First Symphony for her before its premiere. She gave some advice about the Adagio, which he took to heart. She expressed her appreciation of the Symphony as a whole, but mentioned her dissatisfaction with the endings of the third and fourth movements. She was the first to perform many of his works in public, including the '' Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel'', a solo piano work written by Brahms in 1861.


Concert tours

Clara Schumann first toured England in April 1856, while her husband was still living but unable to travel. She was invited to play in a
London Philharmonic Society London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major se ...
concert by conductor William Sterndale Bennett, a good friend of Robert's. She was displeased with the little time spent on rehearsals: "They call it a rehearsal here if a piece is played through once." She wrote that musical "artists" in England "allow themselves to be treated as inferiors." She was happy, though, to hear the cellist
Alfredo Piatti Carlo Alfredo Piatti (8 January 182218 July 1901) was an Italian cellist, teacher and composer. Biography Piatti was born at via Borgo Canale, in Bergamo and died in Mozzo, 4 miles from Bergamo. The son of a violinist, Antonio Piatti, he ori ...
play with "a tone, a bravura, a certainty, such as I never heard before". In May 1856, she played Schumann's
Piano Concerto in A minor The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and is among the most popular of the genre. Structure The concerto is in three movements: ...
with the
New Philharmonic Society The New Philharmonic Society was a British music society, established in 1852, giving annual series of subscription concerts of orchestral music in London until 1879. The concerts in the first season were conducted by Hector Berlioz. History Prosp ...
conducted by Dr Wylde, who as she said had "led a dreadful rehearsal" and "could not grasp the rhythm of the last movement". Still, she returned to London the following year and continued to perform in Britain for the next 15 years. In October–November 1857, Schumann and Joachim went on a recital tour to Dresden and Leipzig.
St. James's Hall St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street and Piccadill ...
in London, which opened in 1858, hosted a series of "Popular Concerts" of chamber music. Joachim visited London annually beginning in 1866. Schumann also spent many years in London participating in the Popular Concerts with Joachim and the celebrated Italian cellist Carlo Alfredo Piatti. Second violinist
Joseph Ries Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
(brother of composer Ferdinand Ries) and violist J. B. Zerbini usually played on the same concert programs. George Bernard Shaw, the leading playwright and also a music critic, wrote that the Popular Concerts helped greatly to spread and enlighten musical taste in England. In January 1867, Schumann toured Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland, along with Joachim, Piatti, Ries, and Zerbini. Two sisters, Louisa and Susanna Pyne, singers and managers of an opera company in England, and a man named Saunders, made all the arrangements. She was accompanied by her oldest daughter Marie, who wrote from Manchester to her friend Rosalie Leser that in Edinburgh the pianist "was received with tempestuous applause and had to give an encore, so had Joachim. Piatti, too, is always tremendously liked." Marie also wrote: "For the longer journeys we had a saloon ar comfortably furnished with arm-chairs and sofas... the journey ... was very comfortable." On this occasion, the musicians were not "treated as inferiors".


Later life


Concerts

Schumann still performed actively in the 1870s and 1880s. She performed extensively and regularly throughout Germany during these decades, and had engagements in Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland. When in Basel, Switzerland, she often stayed with the
Von der Mühll Von der Mühll or Von der Mühl is a Swiss patrician (see the Daig of Basel) and noble family. From the 18th century, with other patrician families in Basel ( Merian, Burckhardt, Faesch, Vischer), the Von der Mühll family dominated the city of ...
family. She continued her annual winter-spring concert tours of England, giving 16 of them between 1865 and 1888, often with violinist Joachim. She took a break from concert performances, beginning in January 1874, cancelling her usual England tour due to an arm injury. In July, she consulted a doctor, who having massaged the arm, advised her to practice for only one hour a day. She rested for the remainder of the year before returning to the concert stage in March 1875. She had not fully recovered, and experienced more neuralgia in her arm again in May, reporting that she "could not write on account of my arm". By October 1875, she had recovered enough to begin another tour in Germany. In addition to solo piano recitals, chamber music, and accompanying singers, she continued to perform frequently with orchestras. In 1877, she performed Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto in Berlin, with Woldemar Bargiel conducting, her half-brother by her mother's second marriage, and had tremendous success. In 1883, she performed Beethoven's ''
Choral Fantasy The ''Fantasy'' for piano, vocal soloists, mixed chorus, and orchestra, Op. 80, usually called the ''Choral Fantasy'', was composed in 1808 by then 38-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven. Beethoven intended the ''Fantasy'' to serve as the conc ...
'' with the newly-formed Berlin Philharmonic, and was enthusiastically celebrated, although she was playing with an injured hand in great pain, having fallen on a staircase the previous day. Later that year she played Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto (with her own cadenzas) with Joachim conducting the same orchestra, again to great acclaim. In 1885, Schumann once again joined Joachim conducting Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor, again playing her own cadenzas. The following day, she played her husband's Piano Concerto with Bargiel conducting. "I think I played fresher than ever", she wrote to Brahms, "What I liked very much about the concert was that I was able to give Woldemar the direction of it, who had longed for such an opportunity for years." She played her last public concert in Frankfurt on 12 March 1891. The last work she played was Brahms's '' Variations on a Theme by Haydn'', in a version for two pianos, with James Kwast.


Teaching

In 1878, Schumann was appointed the first piano teacher of the new Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium in Frankfurt. She had chosen Frankfurt among offers from Stuttgart, Hannover, and Berlin, because the director,
Joachim Raff Joseph Joachim Raff (27 May 182224 or 25 June 1882) was a German-Swiss composer, pedagogue and pianist. Biography Raff was born in Lachen in Switzerland. His father, a teacher, had fled there from Württemberg in 1810 to escape forced recruitme ...
, had accepted her conditions: she could not teach more than 1-1/2 hours per day, was free to teach at her home, and had four months of vacation and time off for short tours in winter. She demanded two assistants, with her daughters Marie and Eugenie in mind. She was the only woman on the faculty. Her fame attracted students from abroad, including Britain and the United States. She trained only advanced pupils, mostly young women, while her two daughters gave lessons to beginners. Among her 68 known students who made a musical career were
Natalia Janotha Natalia Janotha (8 June 18569 June 1932) was a Polish pianist and composer. Biography Natalia Janotha was born in Warsaw, Poland, the daughter of Juliusz Janotha, who was a composer and teacher at the Music Institute in Warsaw. She started piano ...
,
Fanny Davies Fanny Davies (27 June 1861 - 1 September 1934) was a British pianist who was particularly admired in Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, and the early schools, but was also a very early London performer of the works of Debussy and Scriabin. In England ...
,
Nanette Falk Nanette is a feminine given name. By 2013, the name was considered to be on the verge of extinction in the United States; it had been among the top 1000 baby names until 1977, and had reached a peak in usage in 1956. Notable people with the name i ...
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Amina Goodwin Aminatu (also Amina; died 1610) was a Hausa Muslim historical figure in the city-state Zazzau (now city of Zaria in Kaduna State), in what is now in the north-west region of Nigeria. She might have ruled in the mid-sixteenth century. A controve ...
,
Carl Friedberg Carl Rudolf Hermann Friedberg (September 18, 1872 in Bingen am Rhein, Bingen, German Empire, Germany – September 9, 1955 in Meran, Italy) was a German pianist and teacher of Jewish origin. Biography He was son of Eduard Friedberg (?–1937) a ...
,
Leonard Borwick Leonard Borwick (26 February 1868 – 15 September 1925) was an English concert pianist especially associated with the music of Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Early training and debuts Born in Walthamstow, Essex, of a Staffordshire fam ...
,
Ilona Eibenschütz Ilona Eibenschütz (24 March 1871 in Budapest, Hungary – 21 May 1967 in London, England) was a Hungarian pianist. She received her first instruction in music from her cousin Albert Eibenschütz. Franz Liszt is said to have played at a concer ...
, Adelina de Lara,
Marie Olson Marie may refer to: People Name * Marie (given name) * Marie (Japanese given name) * Marie (murder victim), girl who was killed in Florida after being pushed in front of a moving vehicle in 1973 * Marie (died 1759), an enslaved Cree person in Tro ...
and
Mary Wurm Mary J. A. Wurm (her surname was originally Würm) (18 May 1860 in Southampton – 21 January 1938 in Munich) was an English pianist and composer. Life and career She was born as Mary Josephine Agnes Würm in England, the sister of Alice Ve ...
. The Konservatorium held events to celebrate her 50th year on stage in 1878 and her 60th career anniversary ten years later. She held the teaching post until 1892 and contributed greatly to the improvement of modern piano playing technique.


Death

Clara Schumann suffered a stroke on 26 March 1896, and died on 20 May at age 76. She was buried in Bonn at Alter Friedhof next to her husband, according to her own wish.


Family life

Robert Schumann gave his wife a diary on their wedding day. His first entry indicates that it should act as an autobiography of the family's personal lives, especially of the couple, and of their desires and accomplishments in the arts. It also functioned as a record of their artistic endeavors and growth. She fully accepted the arrangement of a shared diary, as evidenced by her many entries. It demonstrates her loyal love for her husband, with a desire to combine two lives into one artistically, although this life-long goal involved risks. The couple remained joint partners in both family life and their careers. She premiered many of his works, from solo piano works to her own piano versions of his orchestral works. She often took charge of finances and general household affairs. Part of her responsibility included earning money by giving concerts, though she continued to play throughout her life, not just for the income but because she was an artist by training and nature. The burden of family duties increased over time and narrowed her ability as an artist. As a flourishing composer's wife, she was limited in her own explorations. She was the main breadwinner for her family and the sole one after her husband was hospitalized and then died. She gave concerts and taught, and she did most of the work of organizing her own concert tours. She hired a housekeeper and a cook to keep house while she was away on her long tours. Clara and Robert Schumann had eight children: * Marie (1841–1929) * Elise (1843–1928) * Julie (1845–1872) * Emil (1846–1847) * Ludwig (1848–1899) * Ferdinand (1849–1891) * Eugenie (1851–1938) * Felix (1854–1879). Her life was punctuated by tragedy. Her husband was permanently institutionalized after a mental collapse. Her eldest living son Ludwig suffered from mental illness like his father and, in her words, eventually had to be "buried alive" in an institution. She became deaf in later life, and she often needed a wheelchair. Not only did her husband predecease her, but so did four of their children. Their first son, Emil, died in 1847, aged only 1. Their daughter Julie died in 1872, leaving two small children aged only 2 and 7, then raised by their grandmother. In 1879, their son Felix died aged 24. In 1891, their son Ferdinand died at the age of 41, leaving his children to her care. Their oldest child Marie was of great support and help to her mother, taking the position of household cook. Marie also dissuaded her mother from continuing to burn letters that she had received from Brahms which he had asked her to destroy. Another daughter, Eugenie, who had been too young when her father died to remember him, wrote a book, ''Erinnerungen'' (Memoirs), published in 1925, covering her parents and Brahms. Schumann famously rescued her children from violence during the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849. On the evening of 3 May, Robert and Clara heard that the revolution against King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony for not accepting the "constitution for a German Confederation" had arrived in Dresden. Most family members left and hid in a "neighbourhood security brigade", but on 7 May, she bravely walked back to Dresden to rescue her three children who had been left with a maid, defying a pack of armed men who confronted her, then walked back out of the city through the dangerous areas again.


Music


Performance repertoire

During her lifetime, Schumann was an internationally renowned concert pianist. Over 1,300 concert programs from her performances throughout Europe between 1831 through 1889 have been preserved. She championed the works of her husband and other contemporaries such as Brahms, Chopin and Mendelssohn. The Schumanns were admirers of Chopin, especially of '' Variations on "Là ci darem la mano"'', and she played the piece herself. When she was 14 and her future husband 23, he wrote to her: In her early years, her repertoire, selected by her father, was showy and in the style common to the time, with works by
Friedrich Kalkbrenner Friedrich Wilhelm Michael Kalkbrenner (2–8 November 1785 – 10 June 1849), also known as ''Frédéric Kalkbrenner'', was a pianist, composer, piano teacher and piano manufacturer. German by birth, Kalkbrenner studied at the Conservatoire de ...
, Adolf von Henselt,
Sigismond Thalberg Sigismond Thalberg (8 January 1812 – 27 April 1871) was an Austrian composer and one of the most distinguished virtuoso pianists of the 19th century. Family He was born in Pâquis near Geneva on 8 January 1812. According to his own account, h ...
,
Henri Herz Henri Herz (6 January 1803 – 5 January 1888) was a virtuoso pianist, composer and piano manufacturer, Austrian by birth and French by nationality and domicile. He was a professor in the Paris Conservatoire for more than thirty years. Among his ...
,
Johann Peter Pixis Johann Peter Pixis (10 February 178822 December 1874) was a German pianist and composer, born in Mannheim. He lived in Vienna from 1808 to 1824, then in Paris to 1840, during which time he was among the city's most prominent pianists and composers ...
, Carl Czerny and her own compositions. She turned to including compositions by Baroque composers such as
Domenico Scarlatti Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti, also known as Domingo or Doménico Scarlatti (26 October 1685-23 July 1757), was an Italian composer. He is classified primarily as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the deve ...
and Johann Sebastian Bach, but performed especially contemporary music by Chopin, Mendelssohn and her husband, whose music did not attain popularity until the 1850s. In 1835, she performed her
Piano Concerto in A minor The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and is among the most popular of the genre. Structure The concerto is in three movements: ...
with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Mendelssohn. On 4 December 1845, she premiered Robert Schumann's
Piano Concerto A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpiec ...
in Dresden. Following the advice of Brahms she performed Mozart's Piano Concerto in C minor at the Hanoverian court and in Leipzig. Her busiest years as a performer were between 1856 and 1873, after her husband's death. During this period, she experienced success as a performer in Britain, where her 1865 performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto in G major was met with enormous applause. As a chamber musician, she often gave concerts with violinist Joachim. In her later career, she frequently accompanied
lied In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French s ...
er singers in recitals.


Compositions

As part of the broad musical education given to her by her father, Clara Wieck learned to compose, and from childhood to middle age she produced a good body of work. Clara wrote that "composing gives me great pleasure... there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound". Her Op. 1 was '' Quatre Polonaises pour le pianoforte'' composed in 1831, and Op. 5 '' 4 Pièces caractéristiques'' in 1836, all piano pieces for her recitals. She wrote her
Piano Concerto in A minor The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and is among the most popular of the genre. Structure The concerto is in three movements: ...
at age 14, with some help from her future husband. She planned a second piano concerto, but only a ''Konzertsatz'' in F minor from 1847 survived. After her marriage, she turned to lieder and choral works. The couple wrote and published one joint composition in 1841, setting a cycle of poems by Friedrich Rückert called ''Liebesfrühling'' (''Spring of Love'') in ''Zwölf Lieder auf F. Rückerts Liebesfrühling'', her Op. 12 and his Op. 37. Her chamber works include the Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17 (1846) and Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22 (1853), inspired by her husband's birthday. They were dedicated to Joachim, who performed them for
George V of Hanover en, George Frederick Alexander Charles Ernest Augustus , house = Hanover , religion = Protestant , father = Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover , mother = Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz , birth_date = 27 May 1819 , ...
, who declared them a "marvellous, heavenly pleasure". As she grew older, she became more preoccupied with other responsibilities in life and found it hard to compose regularly, writing, "I once believed that I possessed creative talent, but I have given up this idea; a woman must not desire to compose – there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?" Her husband also expressed concern about the effect on her composing output: She produced one to eight compositions every year beginning at age 11, until her output stopped in 1848, producing only a choral work that year for her husband's birthday and leaving her second piano concerto unfinished. These two works, while reserved for her opus 18 and 19, were never published. Five years later, however, when she was 34 in 1853, the year she met Brahms, she engaged in a flurry of composing, resulting in 16 pieces that year: a set of piano variations on an "Album Leaf" of her husband (his Op. 99 No. 4), eight "Romances" for piano solo and for violin and piano, and seven songs. These works were published a year later, after Robert's confinement, as her Op. 20 through 23. For the next 43 years of her life, she only composed piano transcriptions of works by her husband and Brahms, including 41 transcriptions of Robert Schumann's lieder (commissioned by a publisher in 1872), and a short piano duet commissioned for a friend's wedding anniversary in 1879. In the last year of her life, she left several sketches for piano preludes, designed for piano students, as well as some published cadenzas for her performances of Beethoven and Mozart piano concertos. Most of Clara Schumann's music was never played by anyone else and largely forgotten until a resurgence of interest in the 1970s. Today her compositions are increasingly performed and recorded.


Editor

Schumann was the authoritative editor, aided by Brahms and others, of her husband's works for the publishing firm of Breitkopf & Härtel. She also edited 20 sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, letters (''Jugendbriefe'') by her husband in 1885, and his piano works with fingering and other instructions (''Fingersatz und Vortragsbezeichnungen'') in 1886.


"War of the Romantics"

In the early 1840s the Schumanns were interested in the works of Franz Liszt and his young composer friends of what eventually became known as the New German School, but in the second half of the decade they both became openly hostile toward Liszt because of their more musically conservative outlook and beliefs, Clara more so than Robert, as she had long been the more conservative aesthete in the Schumann marriage. By the mid-1850s, after Robert's decline, the young Brahms had joined the cause, and to promote her ideals and protect what she saw as an attack on her husband's beliefs, she, Brahms, and Joseph Joachim formed a group of conservative musicians who defended Robert Schumann's critical ideals of the legacy and respectability of music, the pinnacle of which had been Beethoven. The opposing side of this " War of the Romantics", a group of radical progressives in music (most of them from Weimar) led by Liszt and
Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
, desired to escape composing under the shadow of Beethoven, but to transcend the old forms and ideas of what music had been and instead create what music ''should'' be for the future. The Weimar school promoted the idea of '' program music'', while both the Schumanns and Brahms of the Leipzig/Berlin school were strict in their stance that music must and can only be '' absolute music'', a term derisively coined by Wagner. One of Clara Schumann's difficulties with Liszt stemmed from a philosophical difference in performance practice. He believed that the artist, through physical and emotional performance, interpreted music for the audience. When he performed, Liszt flailed his arms, tossed his head, and pursed his lips., inspiring a Lisztomania across Europe which has been compared to the
Beatlemania Beatlemania was the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band the Beatles in the 1960s. The group's popularity grew in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, propelled by the singles "Please Please Me", "From Me to You" and "She Loves You". By ...
of female fans of The Beatles over a century later. Clara, in contrast, came to believe that the personality of the musician should be suppressed so that the composer's vision would be clearly evident to listeners. Partisans led active campaigns with public demonstrations at concerts, writings published in the press denigrating reputations, and other public slights designed to embarrass their adversaries. Brahms published a
manifesto A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...
for the "Serious Music" side on 4 May 1861, signed by Clara Schumann, Joachim, Albert Dietrich, Woldemar Bargiel, and twenty others, which decried the purveyors of the "Music of the Future" as "contrary to the innermost spirit of music, strongly to be deplored and condemned". The ''New Weimar Club'', a formal society with Liszt at its center, held an anniversary celebration of the ''Neue Zeitschrift für Musik'', the magazine Robert Schumann had founded, in his birthplace Zwickau, and conspicuously neglected to invite members of the opposing party, including his widow, Clara. Clara Schumann ceased to perform any of Liszt's works, and she suppressed her husband's dedication to Liszt of his '' Fantasie in C major'' when she published his complete works. When she heard that Liszt and
Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
would be participating in a Beethoven centenary festival in Vienna in 1870, she refused to attend. In describing the works of the opposing school, Clara Schumann was particularly scathing of Wagner, writing of his '' Tannhäuser'', that he "wears himself out in atrocities", describing '' Lohengrin'' as "horrible", and referring to '' Tristan und Isolde'' as "the most repugnant thing I have ever seen or heard in all my life". She also complained that Wagner had spoken of her husband, Mendelssohn, and Brahms in a "scornful" way. Wagner had poked fun at the musical conservatives in an essay, portraying them as "a musical temperance society" awaiting a Messiah. She held
Anton Bruckner Josef Anton Bruckner (; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist best known for his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-Germ ...
's Seventh Symphony in very low esteem and wrote to Brahms, describing it as "a horrible piece". Bruckner's symphonies were seen as representative of the New Music due to their advanced harmony, massive orchestration and extended time-scale. Schumann was more impressed, however, with the early First Symphony in F minor by Richard Strauss; this was before Strauss began composing the highly programmatic music for which he later became famous. Brahms secretly held Wagner's music in high esteem, and eventually publicly praised Liszt's works as well. Several of the proponents and signers of the manifesto, including Joachim, relented and joined the "other side". The controversy eventually died down, but Clara Schumann remained steadfast in her disapproval of the New German School's music during her lifetime.


Legacy


Impact during her lifetime

Although Schumann was not widely recognized as a composer for many years after her death, she had a lasting effect as a pianist. Trained by her father to play by ear and memorize, she gave public performances from memory as early as age thirteen, a fact noted as exceptional by her reviewers. She was one of the first pianists to perform from memory, making it the standard for concerts. She was also instrumental in changing the kind of program expected of concert pianists. In her early career, before her marriage, she played the customary bravura pieces designed to showcase the artist's technique, often in the form of arrangements or variations on popular themes from operas, written by virtuosos such as Thalberg, Herz, or Henselt. As it was customary to play one's own compositions, she included at least one of her own works in every program, such as Variations on a Theme by Bellini (Op. 8) and the popular Scherzo (Op. 10). However, as she became a more independent artist, her repertoire contained mainly music by leading composers. Schumann influenced pianists through her teaching, which emphasized expression and a singing tone, with technique subordinated to the intentions of the composer. One of her students, Mathilde Verne, carried her teaching to England where she taught, among others,
Solomon Solomon (; , ),, ; ar, سُلَيْمَان, ', , ; el, Σολομών, ; la, Salomon also called Jedidiah (Hebrew language, Hebrew: , Modern Hebrew, Modern: , Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: ''Yăḏīḏăyāh'', "beloved of Yahweh, Yah"), ...
. Another of her students,
Carl Friedberg Carl Rudolf Hermann Friedberg (September 18, 1872 in Bingen am Rhein, Bingen, German Empire, Germany – September 9, 1955 in Meran, Italy) was a German pianist and teacher of Jewish origin. Biography He was son of Eduard Friedberg (?–1937) a ...
, carried the tradition to the Juilliard School in America, where his students included Nina Simone,
Malcolm Frager Malcolm Frager (January 15, 1935June 20, 1991) was an American piano virtuoso and recording artist. Life and career Frager was born in St. Louis, Missouri and studied with Carl Friedberg in New York City from 1949 until Friedberg's death in 1955. ...
and Bruce Hungerford. She was also instrumental in getting the works of Robert Schumann recognized, appreciated and added to the repertoire. She promoted his works tirelessly throughout her life.


Film

Clara Schumann has been portrayed on screen many times. ''
Träumerei ' (, "Scenes from Childhood"), Op. 15, by Robert Schumann, is a set of thirteen pieces of music for piano written in 1838. History and description Schumann wrote 30 movements for this work but chose 13 for the final version. The unused mov ...
'' (''Dreaming''), the oldest known Schumann film, premiered on 3 May 1944 in Zwickau. Possibly the best-known film is '' Song of Love (1947)'' starring
Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress in film, stage, and television. Her career as a Hollywood leading lady spanned over 60 years. She was known for her headstrong independence, spirited perso ...
as Clara, Paul Henreid as Robert, and Robert Walker as Brahms. In 1954, Loretta Young portrayed her on ''The Loretta Young Show'' in Season 1, Episode 26: ''The Clara Schumann Story'' (first aired on 21 March 1954), in which she supports the composing career of her husband, played by
George Nader George Garfield Nader, Jr. (October 19, 1921 – February 4, 2002) was an American actor and writer. He appeared in a variety of films from 1950 to 1974, including ''Sins of Jezebel'' (1953), ''Congo Crossing'' (1956), and ''The Female Animal'' ...
, alongside Shelley Fabares and
Carleton G. Young Carleton Garretson Young (May 26, 1907 – July 11, 1971) was an American actor in radio, film and television. Early years Young was born in Westfield, New York in May 1907. He attended Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he became " ...
. Two more recent German films are ''
Frühlingssinfonie ''Spring Symphony'' (german: Frühlingssinfonie) is a 1983 West German historical drama film directed by Peter Schamoni and starring Nastassja Kinski, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Rolf Hoppe.Mitchell p. 171 It portrays the life of the pianist Clara ...
'' (''Spring Symphony'') (1983), starring Nastassja Kinski as Clara, and the 2008 Helma Sanders-Brahms' film '' Geliebte Clara'' (''Beloved Clara''), where she is portrayed by
Martina Gedeck Martina Gedeck (; born 14 September 1961) is a German actress. She came to broader, international attention due to her roles in films such as '' Mostly Martha'' (2001), ''The Lives of Others'' (2006), and ''The Baader Meinhof Complex'' (2008). Sh ...
.


Banknote and conservatory

An image of Clara Schumann from an 1835 lithograph by Andreas Staub was featured on the 100 Deutsche Mark banknote from 2 January 1989 until the adoption of the euro on 1 January 2002. The back of the banknote shows a grand piano she played and the exterior of Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium, where she taught. The great hall of the conservatory's new building is named after her. File:100_DM_1996.jpg, alt=Banknote in light blue with green and beige, focused on the face of a young woman on the right, dark blue drawing on light blue, Schumann on the 100 DM banknote File:100 DM Serie4 Rueckseite.jpg, alt=Banknote in light blue with yellowish green and beige, focused on an open grand piano, with a building in the left background, Banknote, reverse, showing a grand piano that she played, and the building of Dr. Hoch's where she taught


Notes


References


Cited sources

''Books'' * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ''Encyclopedias'' * * * * * * * ''Newspapers'' * * * * * * * * * * * * * ''Online sources'' * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* Beer, Anna: ''Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music''. Chapter 6: "Schumann", pp. 205–41. Oneworld Publications (2016). . * Boyd, Melinda: "Gendered Voices – The ''Liebesfrühling'' Lieder of Robert and Clara Schumann". In ''19th-Century Music'', Vol. 39 (Autumn 1975), pp. 145–62. * Burstein, L. Poundie: "Their Paths, Her Ways – Comparison of Text Settings by Clara Schumann and Other Composers". In ''Women and Music: A Journal of Gender and Culture'', Vol. 6 (2002), pp. 11ff. * Gates, Eugene. "Clara Schumann: A Composer's Wife as Composer." ''Kapralova Society Journal'' 7, no. 2 (Fall 2009): 1–7. * Gould, John: "What Did They Play? The Changing Repertoire of the Piano Recital from the Beginnings to 1980". In ''The Musical Times'' Vol. 146 (Winter 2005), pp. 61–76. * Kühn, Dieter: ''Clara Schumann, Klavier''. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag (March 2009). . . * Mäkelä, Tomi: "Den Lebenden schulden wir Rücksichtnahme, den Toten nur die Wahrheit. Eine Einführung in Friedrich Wiecks Welt der philisterhaften Mittelmäßigkeit und besseren Salonmusik". In ''Friedrich Wieck: Gesammelte Schriften über Musik und Musiker ..', pp. 15–49. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang (2019). . . * Rattalino, Piero: ''Schumann. Robert & Clara''. Varese, Italy: Zecchini Editore (2002). . . * Sémerjian, Ludwig. "Clara Schumann: New Cadenzas for Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Minor. Romantic Visions of a Classical Masterpiece." ''Kapralova Society Journal'' 17, no. 2 (Fall 2019): 1–9. * Vloed, Kees van der: ''Clara Schumann-Wieck. De pijn van het gemis.'' Soesterberg, Netherlands: Aspekt (2012). . .


External links

*
The Creative Art of Clara Schumann
by Claire Flynn, National University of Ireland thesis, August 1991
Clara Schumann: A Composer’s Wife as Composer
– by Eugene Gates, ''Kapralova Society Journal''
Clara Schumann website at Geneva College


website (German and English versions) * , for piano duet, Clara Schumann's last work * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schumann, Clara 1819 births 1896 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century German women musicians Chamber virtuosi of the Emperor of Austria Child classical musicians Composers for piano German classical pianists German women classical composers German music educators German Romantic composers German women pianists Honorary Members of the Royal Philharmonic Society Musicians from Leipzig People from the Kingdom of Saxony Piano pedagogues Clara Women classical pianists 19th-century women composers 19th-century women pianists