72 Facts About Clara Schumann

Clara Josephine Schumann was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher.

Clara Schumann grew up in Leipzig, where both her father Friedrich Wieck and her mother Mariane were pianists and piano teachers.

Clara Schumann began touring at age eleven, and was successful in Paris and Vienna, among other cities.

Clara Schumann married the composer Robert Schumann, and the couple had eight children.

Clara Schumann gave the public premieres of many works by her husband and by Brahms.

Clara Schumann died in Frankfurt, but was buried in Bonn beside her husband.

Clara Schumann's mother was a famous singer in Leipzig who performed weekly piano and soprano solos at the Gewandhaus.

Clara Schumann's parents had irreconcilable differences, in part due to her father's unyielding nature.

Five-year-old Clara Schumann remained with her father while Mariane and Bargiel eventually moved to Berlin, limiting contact between Clara Schumann and her mother to written letters and occasional visits.

From an early age, Clara Schumann's father planned her career and life down to the smallest detail.

Clara Schumann started receiving basic piano instruction from her mother at the age of four.

Clara Schumann then had to practice for two hours every day.

Clara Schumann Wieck made her official debut on 28 October 1828 at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, at age nine.

From September 1831 to April 1832, Clara Schumann toured Paris and other European cities, accompanied by her father.

Robert Clara Schumann was a little more than nine years older than Wieck.

Robert and Clara Schumann decided to go to court and sue him.

In February 1854, Robert Clara 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, and Julius Otto Grimm spent time with Clara Schumann, playing music for her and with her to divert her mind from the tragedy.

Clara Schumann appeared to recognize her, but could only speak a few words.

Robert Clara Schumann died two days later, on 29 July 1856.

Clara Schumann played a new violin concerto by Felix Mendelssohn, which is said to be wonderful.

Over her career, Clara Schumann gave over 238 concerts with Joachim in Germany and Britain, more than with any other artist.

Robert published an article highly lauding Brahms, and Clara Schumann wrote in the diary that Brahms "seemed as if sent straight from God".

Clara Schumann gave some advice about the Adagio, which he took to heart.

Clara Schumann expressed her appreciation of the Symphony as a whole, but mentioned her dissatisfaction with the endings of the third and fourth movements.

Clara Schumann 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.

Clara Schumann first toured England in April 1856, while her husband was still living but unable to travel.

Clara Schumann was invited to play in a London Philharmonic Society concert by conductor William Sterndale Bennett, a good friend of Robert's.

Clara Schumann spent many years in London participating in the Popular Concerts with Joachim and the celebrated Italian cellist Carlo Alfredo Piatti.

In January 1867, Clara Schumann toured Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland, along with Joachim, Piatti, Ries, and Zerbini.

Clara Schumann performed extensively and regularly throughout Germany during these decades, and had engagements in Austria, Hungary, Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland.

Clara Schumann continued her annual winter-spring concert tours of England, giving 16 of them between 1865 and 1888, often with violinist Joachim.

Clara Schumann took a break from concert performances, beginning in January 1874, cancelling her usual England tour due to an arm injury.

Clara Schumann rested for the remainder of the year before returning to the concert stage in March 1875.

In 1885, Clara Schumann joined Joachim conducting Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor, again playing her own cadenzas.

Clara Schumann played her last public concert in Frankfurt on 12 March 1891.

In 1878, Clara Schumann was appointed the first piano teacher of the new Dr Hoch's Konservatorium in Frankfurt.

Clara Schumann demanded two assistants, with her daughters Marie and Eugenie in mind.

Clara Schumann's fame attracted students from abroad, including Britain and the United States.

Clara Schumann trained only advanced pupils, mostly young women, while her two daughters gave lessons to beginners.

Clara Schumann held the teaching post until 1892 and contributed greatly to the improvement of modern piano playing technique.

Clara Schumann suffered a stroke on 26 March 1896, and died on 20 May at age 76.

Clara Schumann was buried in Bonn at Alter Friedhof next to her husband, according to her own wish.

Robert Clara Schumann gave his wife a diary on their wedding day.

Clara Schumann fully accepted the arrangement of a shared diary, as evidenced by her many entries.

Clara Schumann premiered many of his works, from solo piano works to her own piano versions of his orchestral works.

Clara Schumann often took charge of finances and general household affairs.

Clara Schumann was the main breadwinner for her family and the sole one after her husband was hospitalized and then died.

Clara Schumann gave concerts and taught, and she did most of the work of organizing her own concert tours.

Clara Schumann hired a housekeeper and a cook to keep house while she was away on her long tours.

Clara Schumann's husband was permanently institutionalized after a mental collapse.

Clara Schumann's eldest living son Ludwig suffered from mental illness like his father and, in her words, eventually had to be "buried alive" in an institution.

Clara Schumann became deaf in later life, and she often needed a wheelchair.

Clara Schumann famously rescued her children from violence during the May Uprising in Dresden in 1849.

Clara Schumann championed the works of her husband and other contemporaries such as Brahms, Chopin and Mendelssohn.

Clara Schumann turned to including compositions by Baroque composers such as Domenico Scarlatti and Johann Sebastian Bach, but performed especially contemporary music by Chopin, Mendelssohn and her husband, whose music did not attain popularity until the 1850s.

Clara Schumann wrote her Piano Concerto in A minor at age 14, with some help from her future husband.

Clara Schumann planned a second piano concerto, but only a Konzertsatz in F minor from 1847 survived.

Clara Schumann has composed a series of small pieces, which show a musical and tender ingenuity such as she has never attained before.

Clara Schumann 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.

Clara Schumann edited 20 sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, letters by her husband in 1885, and his piano works with fingering and other instructions in 1886.

Clara Schumann believed that the artist, through physical and emotional performance, interpreted music for the audience.

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.

Clara Schumann complained that Wagner had spoken of her husband, Mendelssohn, and Brahms in a "scornful" way.

Clara Schumann held Anton Bruckner's Seventh Symphony in very low esteem and wrote to Brahms, describing it as "a horrible piece".

Clara Schumann was more impressed 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.

The controversy eventually died down, but Clara Schumann remained steadfast in her disapproval of the New German School's music during her lifetime.

Clara Schumann was one of the first pianists to perform from memory, making it the standard for concerts.

Clara Schumann was instrumental in changing the kind of program expected of concert pianists.

Clara Schumann influenced pianists through her teaching, which emphasized expression and a singing tone, with technique subordinated to the intentions of the composer.

Clara Schumann was instrumental in getting the works of Robert Schumann recognized, appreciated and added to the repertoire.

Traumerei, the oldest known Clara Schumann film, premiered on 3 May 1944 in Zwickau.