Description
Book SynopsisThis absorbing and award-winning biography tells the story of the tragedies and triumphs of Clara Wieck Schumann (1819–1896)—at once artist, composer, editor, teacher, wife, and mother of eight children.
Trade ReviewClara Schumann was one of the remarkable women of the nineteenth century, and she deserves this well-documented biography.... This is the best modern study of Clara Schumann available in English.
* New York Times Book Review *
Foremost among the strengths of this book is the delineation of Schumann's character. While pointing out the overwhelming challenges and devastating losses that dogged her entire life, Reich makes no attempt to paint her as a saint or hero.... The first edition of this book has gained acceptance as a standard resource on Clara Schumann. This revised edition preserves the strengths of the first edition while adding additional information and a fine-tuning of the presentation, assuring that Reich's work will remain central to the subject for the foreseeable future.
* Notes: Journal of the Music Library Association *
In addition to telling us the story of Clara Schumann's life, Nancy B. Reich... includes chapters on Clara Schumann's children, her work as editor, performing artist, and teacher, and her relationships with Brahms, Joachim, Liszt, and other major figures of the era.... There is also a list and analysis of Clara Schumann's compositions.... Reich has written an eminently readable, well-researched, and thoughtful book that gives historical and psychological insights into one of the major artists of the nineteenth century.
* Classical Music Guide Forums *
Reich's first edition contributed to the increase in interest in Clara Schumann and in the performances and recordings of her music. The publication of this revised edition will continue to stir interest with the availability of new documents, letters and the extensive list of newly published music; further, this new edition offers a much more detailed look at Clara Schumann's life and music.
* Journal of the International Association of Women in Music *
The marvelous originality of Reich's book lies in the way she places the marriage and the celebrated friendship with Brahms in perspective among other critical factors in Clara's life. Reich's painstaking, scholarly detail and feminist insight recover not merely the events in the life, dramatic as they were, but its major themes, movements and connecting threads.
* Women's Review of Books *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Preface to the Revised Edition
Preface to the First Edition
Acknowledgments to the Revised Edition
Acknowledgments to the First EditionPart I. The Life of Clara Schumann
1. Prelude: The Wiecks of Leipzig
2. Career Begins
3. Robert Schumann and the Wiecks
4. The Break with Wieck
5. Marriage
6. The Dresden Years
7. Düsseldorf and the Death of Robert Schumann
8. The Later YearsPart II. Themes from the Life of Clara Schumann
9. Schumann and Johannes Brahms
10. Friends and Contemporaries
11. Clara Schumann as Composer and Editor
12. The Concert Artist
13. Clara Schumann as Student and TeacherCatalogue of WorksNotes
Bibliography
Index
