Over the next few music notes, you and I are going on a journey through the music of Clara Schumann (1819-1896).
Clara was born into a family of musicians; her mother was a singer and her father was a piano teacher. She was a brilliant pianist in her own right. At age 16, she performed her own piano concerto, which she had begun composing at age 14.
Her father, a very popular piano teacher, had a student, Robert Schumann, who was nine years older than Clara. Clara and Robert fell in love and wanted to get married. However, her father, though very fond of Robert, had different plans for Clara and opposed the marriage, thinking it would derail Clara’s music career. This turned into a very acrimonious and messy scandal, involving Clara suing her father for the right to marry Robert.
Clara and Robert got married and had eight children. Theirs was a marriage of love and professional collaboration. Robert, who wanted to be a pianist but whose professional career was derailed due to a hand injury, became a composer just like Clara.
Ten years into their marriage, Robert’s health started to rapidly deteriorate. He began experiencing manic episodes and fell into depression. In 1854, about 14 years after they got married, he tried to commit suicide by jumping into a river. He committed himself to a psychiatric asylum shortly after, where he died two years later.
Clara had a very successful career as a piano soloist, performing for most of her life. Though her husband Robert is more famous today as a composer and was more prolific, Clara composed some wonderful music. We’ll explore the music of both Schumanns over the next few music notes.
I cannot talk about the Schumanns without mentioning their relationship with Johannes Brahms. They met relatively unknown Brahms when he was only 20 years old, and the couple was smitten by his talent. Robert, excited by Johannes’s potential, wrote about him in the newspaper, calling him “the next Beethoven.”
Robert had good intentions when he did this, but it backfired. Brahms was stunned by the comparison and there ensued a 21-year symphonic composing block – it took him about 21 years to complete his first symphony (to be fair he did compose other music during these 21 years). He tried to compose something worthy of Beethoven. Brahms’s first symphony was a great success, and it took him just about a decade to compose his other three symphonies. Both Schumanns became Brahm’s mentors and friends.
There is a lot of evidence that Brahms was in love with Clara, and they remained friends throughout their lives. The music world, which lacks drama and romance, has engaged in a lot of speculation that after Robert’s death this relationship was not platonic, but there is no evidence to support this claim.
We are going to start our exploration of Schumann’s music with Clara’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7.
