THE STORY OF ROBERT AND CLARA

Clara was born in Leipzig in 1819, the daughter of a well-known music teacher, Friedrich Wieck. Her musical talent became apparent at a very early age and was nurtured in the hothouse of her father’s demanding attention. Musicians from all over Germany came to study with Wieck, but Clara was his special project and her career became the focus of his own professional life.

In 1830, when Clara was 11 and about to make a debut at the Gewandhaus Concert Hall, a talented young pianist and composer – Robert Schumann – came to Leipzig to study with her father; because he was poor and far from home, Wieck suggested that he rented a room in the family apartment. Robert became part of the family and helped out with the younger children. In exchange he received a musical education from one of the best teachers in the Germany. In 1833 Robert outgrew the tiny room in the Wieck’s apartment and took a cottage on the outskirts of town. This is when his correspondence with Clara began in earnest. Over the next three years, Robert and Clara fell in love – but Clara’s father was resolutely opposed to any relationship between them and forbade his daughter to see Robert.

In the spring of 1837 Robert wrote his great F sharp minor piano sonata, and smuggled it into the Wieck household for Clara to learn. For weeks on end the only communication they had with each other was for Clara to play the sonata, night after night, while Robert lingered outside her window listening to his own work being diligently practiced, both of them terrified that Wieck would return unexpectedly and bump into Robert in the darkness outside the house.

In spite of Wieck’s opposition they became secretly engaged, and on Clara’s eighteenth birthday, Robert wrote to Wieck asking for her hand in marriage and shortly afterwards was summoned for an interview which was unsuccessful. In spite of continuing animosity from Wieck and an absolute embargo on any communication between them, Clara and Robert continued writing to each other – though they had to send all their letters through servants or friends, and wrote long aggregate letters for days on end until an opportunity presented itself to deliver them. At set times every day they both sat down and played the same pieces, even when miles apart, in order to share in a communion of music and thought. In this long period of separation, Robert suffered terrible pangs of uncertainty and jealousy, while Clara’s love continued to be torn between Robert and her father.

Clara’s career was going from strength to strength. She played recitals in concert halls and palaces all over Germany. She composed too, playing her own concerto in many of her concerts.

Robert and Clara were finally married on the eve of Clara’s 22nd birthday, 12 September 1840. Robert insisted they start a marriage diary as a record of their life together. Their first child arrived less than a year after their marriage and seven more followed, making eight children in only thirteen years. On the birth of their first child, Clara’s father wrote Robert a letter of reconciliation.

Robert composed and Clara juggled the confinements of childbirth with her concert career. As the years went by, Robert’s mental instability became apparent and at home his silences grew longer, his moods darker. At this point, Johannes Brahms arrived from Hamburg to study composition with Robert.

On February 26th 1854, Robert rose early in the morning and jumped from a bridge into the river Rhine where he was saved from drowning by a group of dockers. Following this he was committed to an asylum where Clara was forbidden to see him, getting only sporadic reports of his progress. In the summer of 1856, Clara was told that it would be unlikely that Robert would ever leave the hospital. Clara and Brahms went to visit the asylum but were only allowed to watch Robert through a peep hole and watched him suffering terribly.

Robert died when he was 46 and Clara was 37. She lived for another 40 years. As time went on, Brahms fell more and more in love with her. She returned his adoration with friendship and reverence.