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25 September 2019

Reappraising Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann is still best known as the wife of fellow composer Robert, but on the 200th anniversary of her birth she is being celebrated in her own right.

By Emily Bootle

By the time Clara Schumann died in 1896, she had had eight children, was one of the most famous pianists of the century, and had produced a significant body of original work. She is still best known as the wife of fellow composer Robert (who died in 1854, half a century before her), but she was admired by Liszt and Chopin and bewitched a young Brahms.

In 2019, the 200th anniversary of her birth, she is being celebrated for more than her associations with male musical greats. Her home city, Leipzig, has held a series of concerts in her honour this year, while 2019’s Schumannfest in Bonn was dedicated to her. In the UK next month, the pianist Lucy Parham will perform “I, Clara” – a “composer portrait” blending music and narration – at the London Piano Festival, while Reiko Fujisawa will perform “Clara Schumann: Prodigy, Muse, Virtuoso” as part of the Southbank Centre’s Women in Music series.

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