Born: 13 September 1819, Germany
Died: 20 May 1896
Country most active: International
Also known as: Clara Josephine Wieck
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World and This Day In Human Ingenuity & Discovery: 366 Days of Scientific Milestones with Women in the Spotlight, and has been republished with permission.
Clara Josephine Wieck Schumann was a renowned German pianist, composer, and teacher, celebrated in the Romantic era. Her 61-year career as a concert pianist transformed piano recitals by prioritizing musical depth over virtuosity. She composed solo piano works, a notable piano concerto (Op. 7), chamber music, choral pieces, and songs.
Raised in Leipzig by musician parents, Clara was a child prodigy trained by her father. She embarked on successful tours from age eleven, captivating audiences in Paris, Vienna, and beyond. Clara Wieck debuted at Leipzig’s Gewandhaus in 1828 at age nine. That same year, she met Robert Schumann, a gifted young pianist and future composer who became her father’s student. She married him and had eight children together.
After Robert’s early passing, she continued touring with other chamber musicians. In 1878, she became a revered piano educator at Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium in Frankfurt, attracting students worldwide. Clara also edited her husband’s works. She rests beside him in Bonn.
The following is excerpted from Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women, written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company.
Clara Josephine Schumann, a German musician, composer, and pianist, wife of Robert Schumann. She was born in Leipzig, daughter of the pianist Frederick Wieck, from whom she received her musical education.
At thirteen she began the concert tours which made her famous and which led to her acquaintance with Robert Schumann whom she married in 1840, sharing his artistic work and success until his death in 1856, after which she pursued her public career alone, devoting herself principally to the interpretation of her husband’s works, and doing much to familiarize the public with his compositions.
In 1878 she was appointed professor of piano at the Conservatorium in Frankfort, a post which she held until 1892, and in which she contributed greatly to the modern improvement in technique, while many celebrated pianists of the present day were her pupils.
Besides being remembered as one of the greatest concert pianists of her generation, she was equally gifted as a composer of many charming songs and other instrumental works.
The devotion of Clara Schumann to the genius of her husband, is one of the most attractive love-romances in musical history.
The following is excerpted from A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, published in 1900 and edited by George Grove.
SCHUMANN, Clara Josephine, wife of the foregoing, one of the greatest pianoforte players that the world has ever heard, was the daughter of Friedrich Wieck, and was born at Leipzig, Sept. 13, 1819. She began the PF. at a very early age under her father’s guidance; and on Oct. 20, 1828, when she had just completed her ninth year, made her début in public at a concert of Miss Perthaler’s, where she played with Emilie Reinhold in Kalkbrenner’s 4-hand variations on the March from Moïse. The notices in the Leipzig Tageblatt and A.M.Z. show that she was already an object of much interest in the town. At this time she was accustomed to play the concertos of Mozart and Hummel with orchestra by heart, and thus early did she lay the foundation of that sympathy with the orchestra which so distinguishes her. On November 8, 1830, when just over eleven, she gave her first concert at the Gewandhaus under the good old name of ‘Musikalische Akademie’; and her performance is cited by the A.M.Z. as a proof how far application and good teaching can bring great natural gifts at so early an age. Her solo pieces were Rondo brillant (op. 101), Kalkbrenner; Variations brillantes (op. 23), Herz; and variations of her own on an original theme; and she is praised by the critic just referred to for already possessing the brilliant style of the greatest players of the day. Her next appearance was on May 9, 1831, in pieces by Pixis and Herz—still bravura music. About this time she was taken to Weimar, Cassel, and Frankfort, and in the spring of 1832 to Paris, where she gave a concert on April 13, of which, however, no details are to be found. Mendelssohn was there at the time, but was suffering from an attack of cholera, and thus the meeting of these two great artists—destined to become such great friends—was postponed. On July 9 and July 31, 1832, she gives two other ‘Musikalische Akademien’ in Leipzig, at which, besides Pixis and Herz, we find Chopin’s variations on ‘La ci darem’ (op. 2), a piece which, only a few months before, Robert Schumann had welcomed with his first and one of his most spirited reviews. At the former of these two concerts Fraulein Livia Gerhardt (now Madame Frege) sang in public for the first time.
In October 1832 Clara Wieck seems to have made her début at the Gewandhaus Concerts in Moscheles’s G minor Concerto—Pohlenz was then the conductor—and from that time forward her name is regularly found in the programmes of those famous Subscription Concerts, as well as of others held in the same hall. Hitherto, it will be observed, her music has been almost exclusively bravura; but on Nov. 9, 1832, she played with Mendelssohn and Rakemann in Bach’s triple Concerto in D minor, and about the same time Moscheles mentions her performance of one of Schubert’s Trios, and Beethoven’s Trio in B♭. In the winter of 1836 she made her first visit to Vienna, and remained during the winter playing with great success, and receiving the appointment of ‘Kk. Kammer-virtuosin.’
Schumann had been on a very intimate footing in the Wieck’s house for some years, but it appears not to have been till the spring of 1836 that his attachment to Clara was openly avowed, and it was not till Sept. 12, 1840 (the eve of her birthday), after a series of delays and difficulties which are sufficiently touched upon in the preceding article, that they were married. For eighteen months after this event Madame Schumann remained in Leipzig. We find her name in the Gewandhaus programmes attached to the great masterpieces, but occasionally making a romantic excursion, as in December 1841, when she twice played with Lizst in a piece of his for two pianos. In the early part of 1842 she and her husband made a tour to Hamburg, which she continued alone as far as Copenhagen. Later in that year they were in Vienna together. In 1844 Schumann’s health made it necessary to leave Leipzig, and remove to Dresden, where they resided till 1850. During all this time Madame Schumann’s life was bound up with her husband’s, and they were separated only by the exigencies of her profession. She devoted herself not only to his society, but to the bringing out of his music, much of which—such as the PF. Concerto, the Quintet, Quartet, and Trios, etc.—owed its first reputation to her. In the early part of 1846 Schumann was induced to go to Petersburg, and there his wife met Henselt, and had much music with him. In the winter of the same year they were again at Vienna, and there Madame Schumann made the acquaintance of Jenny Lind for the first time, and the two great artists appeared together at a concert in December. England, though at one time in view, was reserved to a later day. At Paris she has never played since the early visit already spoken of. The trials which this faithful wife must have undergone during the latter part of her husband’s life, from his first attempt at self-destruction to his death, July 19, 1856, need only be alluded to here. It was but shortly before the fatal crisis that she made her first visit to England, playing at the Philharmonic on April 14 and 28, at the Musical Union on four separate occasions, and elsewhere, her last appearance being on June 24. On June 17 she gave an afternoon ‘Recital’ at the Hanover-square rooms, the programme of which is worth preserving. 1. Beethoven, Variations in E♭ on Theme from the Eroica; 2. Sterndale Bennett, Two Diversions (op. 17), Suite de pieces (op. 24, no. 1); 3. Clara Schumann, Variations on theme from Schumann’s ‘Bunte Blätter’; 4. Brahms, Sarabande and Gavotte in the style of Bach; 5. Scarlatti, Piece in A major; 6. R. Schumann’s Carnaval (omitting Eusebius, Florestan, Coquette, Replique, Estrella, and Aveu). She returned from London to Bonn just in time to receive her husband’s last breath (July 29, 1856).
After this event she and her family resided for some years in Berlin with her mother, who had separated from Wieck and had married a musician named Bargiel; and in 1863 she settled at Baden Baden, in the Lichtenthal, which then became her usual head-quarters till 1874.
Her reception in this conservative country was hardly such as to encourage her to repeat her visit, and many years passed before she returned. In 1865, however, the appreciation of Schumann’s music had greatly increased on this side the Channel; and the anxiety of amateurs to hear an artist whose fame on the continent was so great and so peculiar became so loudly expressed, that Madame Schumann was induced to make a second visit. She played at the Philharmonic May 29, Musical Union April 18, 25, and June 6, etc. etc. In 1867 she returned again, and after this her visit became an annual one up to 1882, interrupted only in 1878, 1879, 1880, when health and other circumstances did not permit her to travel. [App. p.791: “add that she came to England in 1885, 1886, 1887, and 1888.”] In 1866 she again visited Austria, and gave six concerts at Vienna; and any coldness that the Viennese may have previously shown towards her husband’s compositions was then amply atoned for.
In 1878 she accepted the post of principal teacher of the pianoforte in the Conservatoire founded by Dr. Hoch at Frankfort, where she is now (1882) living and working with great success. [App. p.791 “Died May 20, 1896.”]
This is not the place or the time to speak of the charm of Madame Schumann’s personality, of the atmosphere of noble and earnest simplicity which surrounds her in private life no less than in her public performance. Those who have the privilege of her acquaintance do not need such description, and for those who have not it is unnecessary to make the attempt. She is deeply and widely beloved, and a few years ago, when there appeared to be a prospect of her being compelled by ill health to abandon her public appearances, the esteem and affection of her numerous friends took the practical form of a subscription, and a considerable sum of money was raised in Germany and England for her use.
I am indebted to Mr. Franklin Taylor for the following characterisation of Madame Schumann’s style and works.
As an artist, Madame Schumann’s place is indubitably in the first rank of living pianists; indeed she may perhaps be considered to stand higher than any of her contemporaries, if not as regards the possession of natural or acquired gifts, yet in the use she makes of them. Her playing is characterised by an entire absence of personal display, a keen perception of the composer’s meaning, and an unfailing power of setting it forth in perfectly intelligible form. These qualities would lead one to pronounce her one of the most intellectual of players, were it not that that term has come to imply a certain coldness or want of feeling, which is never perceived in her playing. But just such a use of the intellectual powers as serves the purposes of true art, ensuring perfect accuracy in all respects, no liberties being taken with the text, even when playing from memory, and above all securing an interpretation of the composer’s work which is at once intelligible to the listener—this certainly forms an essential element of her playing, and it is worth while insisting on this, since the absence of that strict accuracy and perspicuity is too often mistaken for evidence of deep emotional intention. With all this, however, Madame Schumann’s playing evinces great warmth of feeling, and a true poet’s appreciation of absolute beauty, so that nothing ever sounds harsh or ugly in her hands; indeed it may fairly be said that after hearing her play a fine work (she never plays what is not good), one always becomes aware that it contains beauties undiscovered before. This is no doubt partly due to the peculiarly beautiful quality of the tone she produces, which is rich and vigorous without the slightest harshness, and is obtained, even in the loudest passages, by pressure with the fingers, rather than by percussion. Indeed, her playing is particularly free from violent movement of any kind; in passages, the fingers keep close to ihe keys and squeeze instead of striking them, while chords are grasped from the wrist rather than struck from the elbow. She founds her technique upon the principle laid down by her father, F. Wieck, who was also her instructor, that ‘the touch (i.e. the blow of the finger upon the key) should never be audible, but only the musical sound,’ an axiom the truth of which there is some danger of overlooking, in the endeavour to compass the extreme difficulties of certain kinds of modern pianoforte music.
Madame Schumann’s répertoire is very large, extending from Scarlatti and Bach to Mendelssohn, Chopin, and Brahms, and it would be difficult to say that she excels in her rendering of any one composer’s works rather than another’s, unless it be in her interpretation of her husband’s music. And even here, if she is pronounced by general opinion to be greatest in her playing of Schumann, it is probably because it is to her inimitable performances that we owe, in this country at least, the appreciation and love of his music now happily become universal, and thus the player shares in the acknowledgement she has won for the composer.
Madame Schumann’s compositions, though not very numerous, evince that earnestness of purpose which distinguishes her work in general. Even her earliest essays, which are short pianoforte-pieces written for the most part in dance-form, are redeemed from any approach to triviality by their interesting rhythms, and in particular by the freshness of their modulations, the latter being indeed in some cases original even to abruptness. Their general characteristic is that of delicacy rather than force, their frequent staccato passages and the many skipping grace-notes which are constantly met with requiring for their performance a touch of the daintiest lightness; although qualities of an opposite kind are occasionally shown, as in the ‘Souvenir de Vienne,’ op. 9, which is a set of variations in bravura style on Haydn’s Austrian Hymn. Among her more serious compositions of later date are a Trio in G minor for pianoforte, violin and violoncello, op. 17, which is thoroughly musicianlike and interesting, three charming Cadences to Beethoven’s Concertos, ops. 37 and 58, and a set of three Preludes and Fugues, op. 16, which deserve mention not only on account of their excellent construction, but as forming a most valuable study in legato part-playing. There is also a Piano Concerto, op. 7, dedicated to Spohr, of which the passages (though not the modulations) remind one of Hummel; but it is a short work and not well balanced, the first movement being reduced to a single solo, which ends on the dominant, and leads at once to the Andante.
In the later works, as might naturally be expected, there are many movements which bear traces of the influence of Schumann’s music both in harmony and rhythm, but this influence, which first seems perceptible in the ‘Soirées Musicales,’ op. 5, 6, is afterwards less noticeable in the pianoforte works than in the songs, many of which are of great beauty. Schumann himself has made use of themes by Madame Schumann in several instances, namely in his Impromptus op. 5 (on the theme of her Variations op. 3, which are dedicated to him), in the Andantino of his Sonata in F minor op. 14, and (as a ‘motto’) in the ‘Davidsbündlertänze,’ op. 6.
The following is a list of Madame Schumann’s compositions:—
Op. 1. Quatre Polonaises.
2. Caprices en forme de Valse.
3. Romance variée.
4. Valses Romantiques.
5, 6. Soirées Musicales, 10 Pièces caractéristiques.
7. Concert no. 1 pour le pianoforte; in A minor.
8. Variations de Concert, in C, on the Cavatina in ‘Il Pirata.’
9. Souvenir de Vienne in E♭, impromptu.
10. Scherzo, D minor.
11. 3 Romances (Mechetti).
12. 3 Songs from R. Schumann’s op. 37 (nos. 2, 4, 11).
13. Sechs Lieder.
14. Deuxieme Scherzo, in C minor.
15. Quatre pièces fugitives.
16. Drei Präludien und Fugen.
17. Trio. PF. and Strings, G minor.
18. (?)
19. (?)
20. Variations on a theme by Robert Schumann.
21. Drei Romanzen.
22. (?)
23. 6 Lieder from Rollets ‘Jocunde.’
‘Liebeszauber,’ Lied by Geibel.
Andante and Allegro, PF. solo.
Cadences to Beethoven’s Concertos in C minor and G.