This year marks 200 years since the birth of one the greatest women of musical history, Clara Schumann.

I write about Clara in my forthcoming book, Concerto, with reference to her relationship to two other great German Romantic composers, Robert Schumann, her husband, and Johannes Brahms, her very close friend. Catriona, the heroine of Concerto, sings a song from Dichterliebe by Robert Schumann, and it haunts the hero, Umberto. He says, ‘Robert’s love for Clara pours out of every note.’ Yet he thinks of Brahms too, who supported Clara when Robert was committed to an asylum for the insane and wrote her impassioned letters. ‘The three of them did make the most extraordinary love triangle,’ muses Catriona.

Catriona in Concerto is a strong, independent woman with a good deal of musical talent: she trained as an opera singer and plays the piano beautifully. I took inspiration for her character from Clara Schumann, an extraordinary woman for her time – for any time.

Clara Schumann – Source

Consummate artist

It was Clara’s father who set her on the path to musical greatness; from an early age, she had daily lessons in piano, violin, singing and composition.

She was just eleven when she travelled on her first concert tour, performing across Europe – always from memory; she was one of the very first performers to do so. A critic then described her playing as ‘epoch-making’… ‘In her creative hands, the most ordinary passage, the most routine motive acquires a significant meaning, a colour, which only those with the most consummate artistry can give.’ In the following few years Clara played to, and impressed, the likes of Goethe and Chopin.

Her concert career would span more than six decades in total, and she would often play with the violinist Joseph Joachim. She became a world renowned pianist, playing more than a thousand concerts. Her repertoire included works by Chopin and Mendelssohn and Beethoven, and of course her husband, Schumann, and dear friend, Brahms.

Muse and confidante

Clara met Robert when she was just thirteen, and he twenty-two. By the time she was fifteen, the two were in love. Clara’s father did his best to thwart their union, and so the couple’s relationship was clandestine – secret rendezvous and hidden letters. Robert channelled his yearning into composing. I write in Concerto:

Catriona knew the lieder well, having immersed herself in the poignant love songs ten years before, when her longing for Umberto had left her so helplessly forlorn. Schumann had written them when he had been separated from his beloved Clara, whose father refused to give the pair his blessing. The songs had spoken to her very soul.

Robert Schumann – Source

Eventually, Clara and Robert engaged in a legal battle against her father, and they were finally able to marry the day before Clara turned twenty-one.

Theirs was a strong marriage. Clara was Robert’s inspiration, and his confidante – and his critic, when needed, for Clara was no meek, subservient woman. In turn, Robert saw Clara as a joint partner in their personal and artistic lives, and it was she who was given the honour of premiering many of his new works. It was also she who often had to take charge of finances and make money for their household, which she did through her concerts.

Devoted mother

Between 1841 and 1854, Clara and Robert had eight children. Though Clara continued to work throughout her children’s lives (she had no choice if they were to have food on the table), she was an attentive mother.

In 1849, Robert and Clara were living in Dresden when the town was plunged into chaos: thousands of people took to the streets in the May Uprising, and when troops opened fire, a battle began. Robert was ill at the time, and Clara – seven months pregnant – took the safety of the family into her own hands. She led her children, first the eldest, and then the younger three, through the streets, past the soldiers who confronted her and the revolutionaries, to a safe house outside the town.

Later in life, Clara’s daughter Julie and son Felix died, leaving behind small children, and Clara raised these grandchildren as her own.

Widow and teacher

In 1854, Robert had a breakdown. He attempted to take his own life, and was placed in an asylum (his son, Ludwig, would later suffer the same fate). Two years later, Robert died there. Clara was not allowed to see him in this period, except for on his deathbed. Their intermediary was Brahms, who would visit Robert on Clara’s behalf.

Brahms developed a deep love for Clara, who would play his works at her concerts. But a relationship never blossomed between the two. As I write in Concerto: ‘When Brahms and Clara were finally free to love each other – after Schumann had died – Brahms bottled out. Clara waited, but he didn’t come to her.’

Johannes Brahms – Source

Still, Clara was not alone once she lost Robert. She had her children, and she had her immensely rewarding work. In 1878 she went to work at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt, teaching her piano technique – whose legacy is evident in piano teaching to this day.

Clara Schumann – Source

Song of Love

This has been but a brief glimpse into the life of Clara Schumann. If you are interested to learn more about Clara, I highly recommend the 1947 movie Song of Love. The beautiful Katherine Hepburn plays Clara, and the story revolves around the love triangle between Clara, Robert and Johannes Brahms.

Source