Clara Schumann
13 de septiembre de 1819 - Leipzig (Alemania) — 20 de mayo de 1896 - Fráncfort del Meno (Alemania)
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A piano prodigy praised by the public and her peers
Clara Wieck was born September 13, 1819, in Leipzig. At age five she began studying music with her father, Friedrich Wieck, a well-known piano teacher who saw his daughter's talent and decided to form her into a virtuoso. Clara's mother, Mariane Bargiel, was also a pianist and soprano, a regular performer at the prestigious Gewandhaus Leipzig—which is where the 9-year-old Clara first performed for an audience! This appearance began an international tour that made her name throughout Europe, winning over the public and the cognoscenti: Goethe praised her talent, Chopin compared her playing to that of Liszt, Paganini offered to perform with her in concert, and composers like Mendelssohn, Schubert, Liszt, and—a bit later—Brahms continued to sing her praises. Clara was named Royal and Imperial Chamber Virtuoso in Austria, the highest honor for a musician in Vienna and one accorded to very few non-Austrians. It can be difficult today to fully realize the extent of Clara's celebrity, but in the course of her career she gave more than 1,300 concerts all across Europe while regularly giving the world premieres of piano works by her contemporaries, including her husband Robert Schumann.