“Love me well … I ask for much, because I give much.”
~ Robert Schumann
There are many myths connected to Schumann (June 8, 1810 - July 29, 1856), one of which is that he was happily married to Clara Schumann. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
Their marriage was turbulent, with constant arguing; their relationship far from perfect loving and nourishing as history of music often depicts it, which drove Robert into deep depression, and finally to a suicide attempt and his asylum confinement. Robert's deep emotional needs have rarely been sufficiently met by Clara, who held her career as a first priority.
"Well, this relationship is too complicated to be portrayed now with any real authority. The way it is often depicted, however – as the ideal romantic marriage – is clearly wrong. The tensions were enormous. Clara’s ambition and her understandable frustration with her role as Robert’s assistant and as housewife/mother were certainly factors in the marital tension. But Robert, gentle soul though he was, was also extremely difficult and at times passive-aggressive. Furthermore, he refused to share his new compositional projects with his former muse; how hurtful that must have been to Clara! It is clear that there were increasing differences between them."
So who knows how much more beautiful music he would write if his love life was happier and more fulfilling ?
However, Schumann has been an immensely productive composer anyway, his music intimately romantic in all its moods. From open and vulnerable sometimes mixed with great sadness, to deeply affectionate, tenderly loving, joyous, humorous, hopeful, sporadically even impressionistic in its tone, colours and atmosphere it creates ... there is an infinite variety of emotions and moods in his music. And more than anything and no matter which mood, there is always that 'light' he used to speak about, the light that reaches even the darkest parts of our hearts, for which we remain eternally grateful.
Thank you for the LIGHT Robert Schumann. We love you well, because you gave us much. - HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!
R. Schumann is the composer whose music I immediately understand and relate to very deeply, so it is not surprising that I interpret it better than any other composer's. I played next to nothing of his music in my young ages, but I am more than compensating for that now. Without his music my life would be much poorer indeed.
Reference: 'The Complicated Musical Genius of Robert Schumann', by Steven Isserlis
Listen: Maria João Pires plays R. Schumann, 3 Romanzen, Op. 28, No. 2
https://open.spotify.com/track/4lOyMmK1xLkJ3opleH8nnW?si=98b6ef131c2a49e2
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