This course offers a biographical and musical study of Robert (1810-1856) and Clara (1819-1896) Schumann, two of the most talented musicians of the 19th century.
He was a pianist and a composer of singular imagination and originality who believed passionately in 19th-century Romantic ideals.
She was a composer and one of the premiere pianists of her time.
They were husband and wife—a working couple attempting to balance their relationship, their careers, and their eight children 150 years before such problems became the stuff of everyday discourse.
You explore Robert and Clara’s lives apart and together and their extraordinary and ultimately tragic romance. You also hear excerpts from over a dozen of Robert’s works and selected works from Clara.