Saturday, January 30, 2010

Queen of the Piano : Clara Wieck Shumann


She is the first female concert pianist recognised in music history, Clara Wieck Schumnn performed with passion and poetry that she became the only and best interpreter of the music for her husband, Robert Schumann, and her lifetime close friend Johannes Brahms.


One of the most renowned figures among classical musicians of the nineteenth century, Clara Schumann (1819 - 1896) was sometimes known as Europe's Queen of the Piano. Beside her marriage to Robert Schumann, her own accomplishments, which include a small but important body of compositions, have been investigated, in increasing detail, as interest in the creative lives of women has grown.


However, the part that most enchanted me was not her determination for music but her relationship with Brahms. Brahms' loyalty to her as a lover and friend, who never got married in his life, truly appealed in his music, portraying in the form of outburst fire and various layers of voicing. We can hear his personality of liberty, playfulness, grandeur and later hidden misery in his music, which Clara always performed for him. It is a relationship of togetherness that engulfed my sensitivity.


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