Schumann, C.: Piano Concerto In A Minor / Piano Trio In G Minor

Description

Clara Schumann (1819-1896)Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7 Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17Born in Leipzig in 1819, Clara Schumann, as she laterbecame, was the first surviving child of FriedrichWieck, a music-teacher who has perhaps sufferedunduly through his opposition to her marriage to hisformer pupil, Robert Schumann. Wieck himself hadfirst studied theology before turning to music and spentthe earlier part of his career as a private tutor in variousfamilies. After his marriage in 1816, he settled inLeipzig, where he combined his activities as a musicteacherwith those of a piano-dealer, hiring and sellingpianos. With his daughter Clara he was able to pursuesingle-mindedly his strict but relatively enlightenedprinciples of musical training. His concentration ofattention on his eldest daughter became all the greaterafter his separation in 1824 and subsequent divorcefrom a woman who had her own career as a singer andpianist and later married Wieck's earlier friend andpossible mentor, the piano-teacher Adolf Bargiel. ClaraWieck was trained as a musician and pianist and wasable, by stages, to embark on a career as a performer.She made her first public appearance in 1828 at aGewandhaus concert in Leipzig, playing a piano duet,Kalkbrenner's Variations on a March from Moses. Shecontinued to play privately to friends, making her publicdebut as a solo artist at the Gewandhaus in 1830. Thefollowing years brought the first development of abrilliant career. In tours to Paris and throughoutGermany, and in 1837 to Vienna, where she was f?¬tedand received the title of Royal and Imperial Virtuosafrom the Emperor, she remained dependent on herfather, who saw to all the practical details of such tours,acting both as teacher and manager.It was in 1830 that Robert Schumann had firstbecome involved in the Wieck circle in Leipzig. He hadundertaken, at his widowed mother's behest, the studyof law, but persuaded her, with the help of FriedrichWieck's guarded recommendation, to allow him tostudy music with Wieck in Leipzig, lodging in thelatter's house. As Clara Wieck grew older and moreindependent in spirit she found herself attracted toSchumann. Her father, however, was well aware of thelatter's strengths and weaknesses, his unsteadiness ofpurpose and his underlying ability as a composer, if notas a pianist. For a time Schumann turned his attention toanother of Wieck's pupils, Ernestine von Fricken, butthis association was soon ended in favour of Clara,leading to their secret engagement in 1837.In the months and years that followed, Wieck'sopposition to Clara's proposed marriage grew invehemence. Whatever his views of the suitability ofSchumann as a husband, and here his paternal doubtsmight have been justified, he saw his daughter'smarriage as an obstacle to a splendid career in whichmuch had been invested. Increasing bitterness and along, enforced separation led to an application by theyoung couple to the court for permission for Clara tomarry without her father's co