Robert Schumann – www.foto-face.com

* June 8th 1810, Zwickau – † July 29th 1856, Endenich

Robert Schumann besides being an influential German composer was also an aesthete and influential music critic. He is one of the most famous Romantic composers of the 19th century.

A hand injury prevented him from pursuing a career as a virtuoso pianist. His early compositions were written almost exclusively for the piano. He composed works for piano and orchestra, including his popular Piano Concerto, as well as many Lieder (songs for voice and piano), four symphonies, an opera, and other orchestral, choral and chamber works. His analyses of music appeared mostly in Die neue Zeitschrift für Musik (“The New Journal for Music”), a Leipzig-based publication that he jointly founded.

In 1839 he married pianist Clara Wieck, a considerable figure of the romantic period in her own right. Both Clara and Robert Schumann were close friends of Johannes Brahms. For the last two years of his life, ill health, both physical and mental confined Schumann to a mental institution where he was duly cared for by his family and many friends.

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