As a young woman her romance with and marriage to the charismatic and gifted Robert Schumann seemed to offer a unique new model for artistic partnership, as the couple traded musical ideas and shared compositional projects.
An eighth child died in infancy. And Clara was duly celebrated as the devoted wife and mother. Clara was the daughter of Marianne Tromlitz Wieck, a talented soprano and pianist, and Friedrich Wieck, an ambitious piano teacher and gifted businessman, owner of a piano rental and parts business in Leipzig. Marianne, a former student of Wieck, contributed to his reputation through her concerts and teaching, but left the domineering, even abusive man when Clara was not quite five.
Determined to capitalize on the then popular fashion of young female piano virtuosi, he set about turning his daughter into a child prodigy. Yet such close monitoring also taught Clara practical tips that would prove useful in her adult life about managing concerts and touring, for example. NR In your Romanze I can hear all over again that we must become husband and wife […] Every one of your thoughts comes from my soul, just as I owe all of my music to you.
Schumann, Clara und Robert Schumann. Ed Eva Weissweiler. Vol 2, Critical ed. My piano playing is falling behind. This always happens when Robert is composing. There is not even one little hour to be found in the whole day for myself! Gerd Nauhaus. Moreover, to add to her responsibilities, Clara had given birth to a daughter Marie on September 1, , the first of what would be eight children Clara would bear. He was more comfortable in the quiet surroundings of home, where he could work; moreover he had mixed feelings at seeing his wife applauded so publicly, especially before he became well known and celebrated himself.
When Clara, by now an experienced concert organizer, did leave him to tour on her own, Robert fell into despondancy and depression. He reluctantly agreed to accompany her on an arduous tour of Russia in which Clara mastered with bravoura, but during which he endured serious physical and emotional suffering. The family, which now included a second daughter, Elise, left the humming musical capital of Leipzig and moved to Dresden, possibly in hopes that a change to the quieter atmosphere would be salutary for Robert.
Moreover, during the five years in Dresden Clara bore four more children and experienced one miscarriage. Despite the fact that her own career took second place during these years, she still was an important source of family income, by giving lessons and through concerts in Dresden, Leipzig, and on tours to Vienna, Prague and Berlin.
But when she first visited England in , the critics received Robert Schumann 's music with a chorus of disapproval. She returned to London in and continued her visits annually, with the exception of four seasons, until She also appeared there each year from to In she was appointed teacher of the piano at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main, a post she held until , and in which she contributed greatly to the improvement of modern piano playing technique. Clara Schumann played her last public concert in She died five years later, in , due to complications from a stroke.
Besides being remembered for her eminence as a performer of nearly all kinds of pianoforte music, she was an impressive composer. She is buried at Bonn's Alter Friedhof old cemetery. Clara Schumann e considered herself a performing artist rather than a composer and no longer composed after age It is suggested that this may have been the consequence of the then prevalent negative opinions of women's ability to compose, which she largely believed as her statements show: "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.
Since then, it is tried to typecast her into more than two roles. As the comprehensive threepart biography by Berthold Litzmann was published in the beginning of the 20th century, it should take decades until the new biography on Clara Schumann was written by the English author Joan Chissel published in She was followed by the American biographer Nancy B.
As the primary breadwinner, Clara Schumann toured and gave concerts virtually her entire life. She set new standards of performance that continue to this day, including the playing of recitals and concertos from memory. She was a talented improviser, which some scholars believe allowed her to bridge her personalities as a pianist and composer. In her recitals, she promoted contemporary composers, particularly her Robert and young Johannes Brahms, as well as performing lesser-known music by Bach and D.
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