Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto at The Tung Auditorium

This week The Tung Auditorium, Liverpool, reverberated to the sound of Clara Schumann’s piano concerto in A minor, a piece in the classical musical repertoire that is seldom performed, and then not until relatively recently. The pianist playing on this occasion was Soraya Verjee with the University of Liverpool’s Chamber Orchestra, led by Louise Ellinson.

This performance was exceptional, both musically and technically

This performance was exceptional, both musically and technically, which is a credit to the University of Liverpool Music department for the talent they have encouraged and tutored. These ‘amateur’ musicians played like professionals. Soraya Verjee is currently pursuing a Batchelor of Arts degree at the University of Liverpool and specialises in studying the works of female composers. Hence her interest in playing a work by Clara Schumann. The University of Liverpool’s Chamber Orchestra is made up of musicians from classical performance modules, members of the University Symphony Orchestra and students across the department and alumni. Each of them sounded faultless in their performances.

It said in the program ‘Celebrating a groundbreaking work once forgotten’ but why forgotten? 

It said in the program ‘Celebrating a groundbreaking work once forgotten’ but why forgotten? Clara Schumann is not a name which readily springs to mind when you think about classical music composers. Yet her own musical output was prolific during her lifetime. It appears she has been overlooked and written out of musical history because she is mostly known as the wife of Robert Schumann.  It is widely recognised now that she was in fact as good as, if not better, for her classical music as her more ‘famous’ husband.

Clara Schumann was born in Leipzig in1819 as Clara Wieck to Friedric and Mariane Wieck, both of whom were pianists and piano teachers. At the age of five, Clara’s parents divorced, and her mother left the household, while she remained with her father. Her father was a strict disciplinarian and determined that Clara would become a successful musician under his tutelage. To that end he made her become a child prodigy in music, although she probably had much musical talent anyway. She was forced to grow up prematurely and at the age of twelve she gave her first public performance in Leipzig. She played music from memory, unusual for that time, and demonstrated remarkable technical skills and musical maturity beyond her years. The critics, however, said that she ‘played more like a man’ which ironically was intended to be a compliment.

With her father she toured most of the major cities in Europe delivering virtuoso performances. Unfortunately, because of restrictions about women earning money at the time, her father received the fees which she had earned, and only gave her a minimal sum, sometimes depending on his assessment of her playing. The fact that she married Robert Schumann, nine years her senior, just as she turned twenty-one, in fierce opposition from her father, perhaps indicates that she wanted to shake off the restrictions which her father had imposed on her for many years previously because it was rare at that time for women to behave so defiantly.

  Clara and Robert Schumann

By all accounts she had a happy marriage and had eight children with Robert and although family life placed constraints on her, she still had the determination to tour, compose and teach music. Her repertoire was wide and varied; she composed solo piano pieces, chamber music, choral pieces and songs. Clara and Robert Schumann had a good working relationship, each assisting the other with their musical compositions. This ended when Robert died in 1856 and although left with many young children, Clara had to perform and tour to earn money to pay the bills, leaving her eldest daughters and housekeeper to maintain the household and to look after the younger siblings.

Nineteenth century society was dominated by men and none the less so than in the realm of music.

She composed 21 seminal works, all to fit with her own musical virtuosity. Clara had an influential compositional style, vast technical ability as a pianist and was admired and respected by many of her (more famous) male music contemporaries. Nineteenth century society was dominated by men and none the less so than in the realm of music. Even so, with her enormous musical talent Clara Schumann broke through societal barriers. She was a symbol of musical and social liberation and reframed how women should be perceived in the classical music industry in her time, and perhaps even now.

Her first (and last) piano concerto performed at The Tung Auditorium, Liverpool, is a triumphant example of Clara Schumann’s musical output. She worked on it for two years and the final version was completed when she was just fifteen and realized with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra on November 9th in 1835 with Felix Mendelssohn conducting. All three movements segue into one another without pause, the piano working in unison and in dialogue with the orchestra, with deep lyrical flute melodies, energized violin passages and of course the piano showcasing the pianist’s ability. In the second movement the orchestra is absent except for the cello and the piano and cello play together as a duet. This was the romantic era of classical music, and this is a prime example of this genre.

Clara Schumann held her last public performance in Frankfurt on the 12th of March 1891. She died of a stroke in the May of 1896.

With young women pianists such as Soraya Verjee reviving the music of Clara Schumann, Clara’s musical inheritance will become better known and survive for future audiences to appreciate and enjoy. We hope so.

By Ian Smith