Tag: Robert Schumann

I invite you to join me today in celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of Clara Schumann. Clara Schumann was born Clara Wieck on this date in 1819; she died in 1896.

While she composed comparatively little herself, if we were to stack her manuscripts alongside those of her associates, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, based on what survives, she really sold herself short.

Still, there’s no underestimating her influence as a pianist. Not only was she praised for her imaginative and sensitive interpretations at the keyboard, as a successful performer, she was also able to keep enough food on the table to sustain her large family and to hold it all together when her mercurial husband slipped off the rails.

For the last two decades of her life, she taught at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. This shot out tendrils in all directions, including to the Juilliard School, where one of her pupils taught Malcolm Frager and Bruce Hungerford.

Fortunately, enough of her music survives to put together a decent salute. We just heard her Piano Trio in G minor on “Music from Marlboro” on Wednesday. Today, we’ll enjoy her “Three Romances” for violin and piano, as well as her Konzertsatz in F minor, the first movement of an intended second piano concerto. We’ll also hear Robert Schumann’s “Variations on a Theme by Clara Wieck” (her maiden name) and “Widmung,” or “Dedication,” a song Robert composed for his new bride.

I am celebrating women all month long. To this end, we’ll also hear Elisabetta Brusa’s opulent Schumann tribute, “Florestan.” Then at 6:00, we’ll hear film scores of Doreen Carwithen, alongside those of her decades-long partner and future husband, William Alwyn.

I hope you’ll join me for Clara Schumann and more, from 3 to 6:00 EDT – with “Picture Perfect” following at 6 – on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.