Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A groundbreaking biography of Robert Schumann that promises to be the definitive account: drawing on previously unpublished primary sources, Judith Chernaik tells Schumann's wrenching life story with the rigor of a scholar and the flair of a novelist. Schumann: The Faces and the Masks draws us into the milieu of the Romantic movement, which enraptured poets, musicians, painters, and their audiences in the early nineteenth century and beyond, even to the present day. It reveals how Schumann (1810-1856) embodied all the contrasting themes of Romanticism--he was intensely original and imaginative but also worshipped the past; he believed in political, personal, and artistic freedom but insisted on the need for artistic form based on the masters: Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. It details his deep involvement with other composers of his time, such as Chopin and Mendelssohn, Liszt and Brahms, as well as the literary lights of the age--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, E.T.A. Hoffmann--whose works gave inspiration to his compositions and words to his songs. Drawing on hitherto unpublished archive material, as well more established sources of journals, letters, and publications, Judith Chernaik provides enthralling new insight into Schumann's life and his music: his sexual escapades, his fathering of an illegitimate child, the facts behind his courtship of Clara Wieck--already a noted young concert pianist--his passionate marriage to her despite the opposition of her manipulative father, his passionate marriage, and the ways his many crises fed the dreams and fantasies of his greatest works, turning his tumultuous life into music that speaks directly to the heart.
Synopsis
Drawing on previously unpublished sources, this groundbreaking biography of Robert Schumann sheds new light on the great composer's life and work. With the rigorous research of a scholar and the eloquent prose of a novelist, Judith Chernaik takes us into Schumann's nineteenth-century Romantic milieu, where he wore many "masks" that gave voice to each corner of his soul. The son of a book publisher, he infused his pieces with literary ideas. He was passionately original but worshipped the past: Bach and Beethoven, Shakespeare and Byron. He believed in artistic freedom but struggled with constraints of form. His courtship and marriage to the brilliant pianist Clara Wieck--against her father's wishes--is one of the great musical love stories of all time. Chernaik freshly explores his troubled relations with fellow composers Mendelssohn and Chopin, and the full medical diary--long withheld--from the Endenich asylum where he spent his final years enables her to look anew at the mystery of his early death. By turns tragic and transcendent, Schumann shows how this extraordinary artist turned his tumultuous life into music that speaks directly--and timelessly--to the heart.