Clara Schumann
Clara Schumann
Clara Schumannwas a German musician and composer, considered one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era. She exerted her influence over a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital and the tastes of the listening public. Her husband was the composer Robert Schumann. Together they encouraged Johannes Brahms. She was the first to perform publicly any work by Brahms. She later premiered some other pieces by Brahms, notably the Variations and Fugue on...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionPianist
Date of Birth13 September 1819
CityLeipzig, Germany
CountryGermany
There is nothing greater than the joy of composing something oneself and then listening to it.
Every man has his faults; I have and so have you - you will allow me to say so!
Treasures are no longer to be got by instrumental art.
You appear in the Novelletten in every possible circumstance, in every irresistible form... They could only be written by one who knows such eyes as yours and has touched such lips as yours.
If I have known much trouble in my youth, I have also known much joy.
I cannot be so bad when everybody is so fond of me.
I cannot give a single concert at which I do not play one piece after the other in an agony of terror because my memory threatens to fail me. This fear torments me for days beforehand.
I do not want horses or diamonds - I am happy in possessing you.
Is an artist much more than a beggar?
My health may be better preserved if I exert myself less, but in the end doesn't each person give his life for his calling?
How often have I actually discovered in myself that enthusiasm raises the artist above himself, how in an ordinary mood one would not have been able to accomplish many of the things for which enthusiasm lends one everything, energy, fire.
The tea is ice-cold, the room grows colder and colder, but I grow warmer and warmer.
I will yield to popular demands only insofar as they do not betray my own convictions.
I wish to lead a life free from care, and I see that I shall be unhappy if I cannot always work at my art.