Clara Wieck Schumann
Clara Josephine Wieck Schumann (born September 13, 1819 in Leipzig, Saxony, died May 20, 1896) was a German musician and one of the leading piano players of the Romantic era. Clara Schumann was also a composer. She eventually became known as "the high priestess of music" and her prestige changed the format and repertoire of piano concerts during her 61-year career as a concert pianist. Her concerts also caused the tastes of the listening public to change.
Clara Wieck was born as the second of five children to piano teacher and piano salesman Friedrich Wieck. Clara's mother Marianne Tromlitz was a soprano and also a performing pianist. It is said that Clara didn't say a word until she was more than 4 years old. Clara herself admitted to understanding as little as she spoke, and that she had no interest in anything happening around her. She claimed this condition was not "etirely cured" until she was 8 years old. She later became a musical genius, and this pattern of delayed speech and subsequent virtuosity is found in other notable late-talkers such as fellow pianist Arthur Rubinstein and physicists Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman.
Clara's parents eventually divorced, and her father retained custody of Clara and set about training her to be a great piano virtuoso. Clara showed extraordinary talent at playing the piano, and at about 9 years old she began travelling with her father to play piano privately in the homes of wealthy people.
In March of 1828, at 9 years old, Clara Wieck performed in Leipzig at the home of Dr. Ernst Carus, and at the performance she met a gifted young pianist named Robert Schumann who was also invited to the musical evening. Robert was nine years older than her, and she found him to be charming and handsome.
Robert Schumann greatly admired Clara's piano playing, and he asked permission from his mother to quit studying law so he could take music lessons from Clara's father. While taking lessons, he lived with the Wieck's for approximately a year until Clara left on a concert tour of Paris.
In 1830, at 11 years old, Clara debuted at Leipzig's famous Gewandhaus and performed her first solo concert, which was followed by concerts in various cities and towns such as Weimar, where she performed for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He gave her with a medal with his portrait and a written note that said "For the gifted artist Clara Wieck."
At age 14, Clara wrote her first piano concerto, with help from Robert Schumann. She performed the concerto at age sixteen at the Gewandhaus with Mendelssohn conducting.
So from the age of 13, Clara Wieck had a superb career as a pianist. In her early years, her repertoire was chosen by her father, and was showy, which was in style at the time. The repertoire consisted of works by Kalkbrenner, Bellini, Henselt, Thalberg, Czerny and Pixis, as well as some of her own compositions.
As she grew and became more established in planning her own concerts, be started playing works by some of the new Romatic era composers like Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann. She also included works by some of the great composers of the past like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert.
At 19 years old, she wanted to marry Robert Schumann, but her father was very opposed to the idea. The matter was actually taken to court by the lovers, and they eventually married. Clara Wieck was now Clara Schumann.
Clara Schumann continued to compose and perform after the marriage, all while raising seven children. She unfortunately lost an eighth child that died in infancy. She accompanied her husband on various tours that helped to broaden her own reputation beyond Germany. It was through her efforts to promote his works that eventually made his work popular throughout Europe.
Johannes Brahms, in 1853 at twenty years old, appeared at the doorstep of the Schumanns in Leipzig, and both Clara and Robert Schumann were thrilled to see him. Brahms and Clara Schumann became great friends, and he provided support for her during Robert's illness. He often sought Clara's advice about new compositions, and even helped to take care of her children while she was away on tour. Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms obviously loved and cared for eachother, but there is no indication that it was ever a physical relationship.
As she grew older, for some reason Clara Schumann lost confidence in her composition skills, and wrote "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?" She saw herself more of a piano virtuoso than a composer, and composed nothing after the age of thirty-six, but continued to play and teach piano.
Clara Schumann played had her last public concert in Frankfurt, Germany in March of 1891. Five years later, she had a stroke on March 26th of 1896. Clara Schumann died on May 20 of the same year. She is remembered for her musical genius and as a performer of all kinds of piano music, but she is also becoming more increasingly respected for her work as a composer. Clara is buried at Bonn's Alter Friedhof old cemetery with her husband, Robert Schumann.