Clara Schumann Essentials

One of the most virtuosic pianists of the 19th century, German composer and performer Clara Schumann captured the spirit of her time with the contemplative melodies of the 3 Romances and the adventurous, rumbling cadence of the Piano Trio in G Minor. There's a deep pathos in songs like “Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen” and “Er ist gekommen,” which gesture forward to those that Mahler would write 50 years later. Of course, for such a piano innovator, it all comes back to that instrument: The Piano Concerto in A Minor is as grandly dramatic and playfully lyrical as anything her husband, Robert Schumann, wrote.