Various - Schumann - Romantische Träume (2006) CasTaN

Robert Schumann (8 June 1810 – 29 July 1856) was a German composer

and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest

composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending

to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. He had been assured by his

teacher Friedrich Wieck that he could become the finest pianist in Europe,

but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical

energies on composing.

Schumann's published compositions were written exclusively for the

piano until 1840; he later composed works for piano and orchestra; many

Lieder (songs for voice and piano); four symphonies; an opera; and other

orchestral, choral, and chamber works. Works such as Kinderszenen,

Album für die Jugend, Blumenstück, Sonatas and Albumblätter are among

his most famous. His writings about music appeared mostly in the Neue

Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a Leipzig-based publication

which he jointly founded.

In 1840, against the wishes of her father, Schumann married Friedrich

Wieck's daughter Clara, following a long and acrimonious legal battle,

which found in favor of Clara and Robert. Clara also composed music and

had a considerable concert career as a pianist, the earnings from which

formed a substantial part of her father's fortune.

Schumann suffered from a lifelong mental disorder, first manifesting

itself in 1833 as a severe melancholic depressive episode, which recurred

several times alternating with phases of ‘exaltation’ and increasingly also

delusional ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic items. After

a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted to a mental asylum, at

his own request, in Endenich near Bonn. Diagnosed with "psychotic

melancholia", Schumann died two years later in 1856 without having

recovered from his mental illness.