Clara Schumann Quotes

He gives me the impression of being a spoilt child. (on Liszt)

Composing gives me great pleasure... there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound.

was born in San Francisco, California. I have in consequence always preferred living in a temperate climate but it is difficult, on the continent of Europe or even in America, to find a temperate climate and live in it. My mother’s father was a pioneer, he came to California in ‘49, he married my grandmother who was very fond of music. She was a pupil of Clara Schumann’s father. My mother was a quiet charming woman named Emilie.

So i dedicate this thing here to old Schu­mann and his sweet Clara who today alas are bones. I dedicate it to the very crimson color scarlet like my blood of a man in his prime and so I dedicate it to my blood. I dedicate it above all to the gnomes, dwarfs, sylphs, and nymphs who inhabit my life. I dedicate it to the memory of my former poverty, when everything was more sober and dignified and I had never eaten lobster.

This aggressive gendering of creativity renders it highly exclusionary, as reflected in Clara Schumann’s belief that women should not even wish to compose. Equally it genders the sense of identification with the composer that was central to the classical star culture.

Friedrich desiderò ardentemente Clara, a prescindere dal suo sesso. Prima ancora di sapere cos’era, chi era, sapeva quello che sarebbe stata: la più grande pianista che lui potesse plasmare