Her father was a music teacher and piano company owner: Who is Clara Josephine Wieck?

Clara Josephine Wieck, the famous pianist and composer of the 19th century, was born in Leipzig on September 13, 1819. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, a music teacher and piano company owner, discovered his daughter's talent at a young age and raised her as a musician from the age of 5.

She started playing in concerts when she was 9 years old. At the age of 11, she gave her first solo concert and composed her first composition. Between 1831 and 1836, she traveled around Europe with her father and gave a series of successful concerts. She became famous as a 'wonder child' and won the admiration of the leading musicians and writers of the time, such as Mendelssohn, Paganini, Chopin, and Goethe.

Clara Josephine Schumann (13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital by lessening the importance of purely virtuosic works. She also composed solo piano pieces, a piano concerto (her Op. 7), chamber music, choral pieces, and songs.

His fame as a pianist was spreading, and his family's financial situation was also getting better. Clara was living proof of how successful Father Wieck's educational method was, thanks to which her father found more and more profitable students, while piano sales increased.

Their happy life was disrupted when Clara fell in love with Robert Schumann, one of her father's students when she was 16 years old. In fact, Clara had known Robert, who was 9 years older than her, since she was 9 years old.

Wieck was strongly against this union and did not allow them to marry. Thereupon, Clara and Robert applied to the court to get marriage permission. This struggle lasted three years because of Father Wieck's resistance.

Father Wieck insisted on not giving permission by repeating these arguments in the courts for about three years; His resistance and prohibitions brought young people closer together instead of pushing them away from each other. During this time, Clara and Robert wrote nearly 400 letters to each other and continued to meet secretly. Meanwhile, Clara continued her successful concerts and Robert continued his compositions. In fact, in order to put an end to the claims that he was unprofessional, Robert also received a philosophy degree while working as a music writer for magazines.

Finally, permission was granted by the court, and in 1840, when Clara was about to turn 21, she married Rober. Her father was so angry with the newlyweds for this defeat that he did not give his daughter a single penny from the money Clara earned from the concerts she gave over the years, and did his best to make their lives difficult.

So much so that Clara was even able to bring her own piano to her home only months later. German director Peter Schamoni's 1983 film 'Frühlingssinfonie' (Spring Symphony) was about the teenage years of Clara and Robert, from their meeting to their marriage. When Clara, played by Nastassia Kinski, brings her own piano from her father's house to her new home, her husband "Isn't our house a little small for two pianos?" he asks, and the movie ends. This sentence, in a way, summarized the future of this marriage.

At first, they thought that their marriage would be a fruitful relationship both emotionally and professionally, but as time went by, some balances began to deteriorate, especially against Clara.

Since Robert was still an unknown composer for the first ten years of their marriage and did not earn much money, it was up to Clara to provide for the family. Although her husband was not happy with this situation, Clara undertook to take care of both her husband and their 8 children, the product of their 14-year relationship, by going on concert tours and giving lessons.

Meanwhile, she continued to support her husband in terms of music, both by playing his compositions in his concerts and by encouraging him to compose new compositions, even though she had to compromise on her own work from time to time; because Robert was disturbed by two pianos playing at the same time in a house, and he could not compose with 'this noise'.

It was always Clara who made the sacrifice in this regard, even giving up her daily exercises, which are essential for a pianist. Robert, who always encouraged Clara to study and compose before their marriage, almost prevented her from working after her marriage. Although he seemed to argue that the composer-performer marriage would be the most ideal relationship possible, he could not accept that Clara was ahead of him.

As the years passed, Robert's uneasiness about remaining an unknown composer in the shadow of his famous and successful wife was added to the nervous breakdowns caused by his hereditary disease, and the Schumanns' marriage became even more intolerable, and after a suicide attempt, Robert was committed to a mental hospital in 1854 and in 1856. He also died there.

During all this time, Clara was able to visit him only once, two days before his death. Clara continued her success in music after her husband's death. She continued as a concert pianist and teacher. Meanwhile, she was successful in her efforts to promote Robert's compositions by publishing all of his works. Robert Schumann achieved his true fame as a composer only after his death. In the following years, Clara never stopped her musical work, although the deaths of three of her children (one of whom died while Robert was still alive) and some problems with the others made her life even more difficult.

In 1878, she became the chief piano teacher of the Frankfurt Conservatory and created a school of pianism by training many students. One of her closest friends during these years was the composer Johannes Brahms, who was a family friend while her husband was still alive. She also inspired Brahms in her compositions and made efforts to promote his compositions. Brahms dedicated many of his compositions to Clara.

According to some music historians, their relationship was more than friendship. Clara celebrated her 60th anniversary in 1888. She gave her last concert in 1891 left the conservatory and continued to give lessons only at home. Clara died in Frankfurt on March 26, 1896. This was a great blow to Brahms, and he lived only a year after his death. At the same time, Clara Josephine Wieck's picture was printed on 100 German Marks for her contributions to art.