An increasingly celebrated German musician of the Romantic era, Clara Schumann is one of the most significant female musicians in history. Throughout her lifetime, she performed in more than 1,300 concerts and tirelessly promoted the musical work of her late husband, Robert Schumann. She also championed the music of her contemporaries and newly established artists, such as a young Johannes Brahms, Frédéric Chopin, and Felix Mendelssohn, as well as introducing her audiences to the then lesser-known music by Johann Sebastian Bach and Domenico Scarlatti.
Clara Schumann achieved brilliant success and lasting influence as a pianist. She was also one of the first pianists to perform from memory, which set a new benchmark for concert soloists that continues to this day. Remarkably, Clara completed her large orchestral piece, “Piano Concerto in A minor,” before she reached the age of 16. She premiered the work herself as a soloist with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra which was conducted by Mendelssohn on November 9, 1835. Clara once wrote in her diary: “Composing gives me great pleasure… there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound.”
In addition, Clara defied the conventional stereotypes of women, not only taking on the role of breadwinner for her family, but also sustaining a successful career in a male-dominated field as an influential performer and outstanding composer.
Now let us take a moment to pay tribute to Clara Schumann’s remarkable life through one of her compositions, “Three Romances, Op. 22.”
