Essential Robert Schumann
In many ways Robert Schumann (1810–1856) was the archetypal musical Romantic. He was disappointed in early dreams of becoming a performer (he injured his hand with a device designed to achieve independence between the fingers) but became a fiery critic as well as a brilliant composer and important conductor. His love for Clara Wieck (herself a great pianist and composer) was forbidden by her father; their eventual marriage in 1840, however, marked the start of a period of almost unparalleled creativity. But Schumann’s life ended tragically: his final years saw his mental health deteriorate and he died in an asylum, to which he was committed after having thrown himself into the Rhine.
Read more…Schumann's music reflects his deep sensitivity as an artist and as a man, as well as the brilliance of his poetic mind. He set the verse of others in glorious songs and used music to express what he saw as the two different sides of his nature: the impulsive and the reflective, personified respectively as "Florestan" and "Eusebius". His piano music, largely dating from before his marriage, is at once direct and enigmatic, full of virtuosic elan or interiority. In 1840 he concentrated on song, producing many of his many masterpieces in the genre; 1841 was dedicated to mastering chamber music. His orchestral works, however, have long been underestimated: his late concertos for violin and cello never achieved the popularity of his Piano Concerto, while his symphonies were often dismissed for their apparently clumsy orchestration. His later works in general tended to be viewed as showing signs of his mental collapse, but now are increasingly appreciated on their own terms as part of a brilliant and varied body of work.