Synopsis
In 1840, immensely talented German pianist Clara Wieck was eagerly awaiting the eve of her 21st birthday, when she would be free to legally marry the 30-year-old composer and music critic Robert Schumann. The couple had hoped to wed years earlier, but the match was bitterly opposed by Clara’s father.
Clara and Robert kept in touch by letters, which were sometimes intercepted by Papa Wieck.
Early in 1840, Clara wrote, “Dear Robert, I love you so much it hurts my heart. Tell me what you’re writing. I would so love to know, oh please, please. A quartet, an overture — even perhaps a symphony? Might it by any chance be — a wedding present?”
The marriage finally took place on today’s date in 1840. As she had guessed, Robert presented Clara with a musical wedding present: not a quartet, overture, or symphony, but a set of 26 songs, published as his Opus 25.
The opening song, Dedication, is a Rückert poem which contains this refrain: “You are my heart and soul, my bliss and pain, you are the world I live in and the heaven I aspire to, my good angel, my better self.”
Music Played in Today's Program
Robert Schumann (1810-1856): (transcribed by Franz Liszt) Widmung; Michael Ponti, piano; Marco Polo 223.127
Robert Schumann (1810-1856): Widmung; Sophie Daneman, soprano; Julius Drake, piano; EMI 72828
On This Day
Births
1825 - Austrian flautist and conductor Karl Doppler, in Lwow
1901 - German composer Ernst Pepping, in Duisburg
1906 - Soviet composer Dimitri Shostakovich, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Sept. 25)
1939 - American composer Phillip Ramey, in Chicago
Deaths
1764 - French composer Jean Philippe Rameau, 80, in Paris
Premieres
1910 - Mahler: Symphony No. 8 (Symphony of a Thousand) in Munich, with the composer conducting
1932 - Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasilieras No. 1, in Rio de Janerio
1937 - Milhaud: Suite Provençale in Venice, conducted by the composer
1954 - Bernstein: Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium) at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with composer conducting and Isaac Stern the violin soloist
1967 - Kokonen: Symphony No. 3, in Helsinki
1969 - Henri Lazarof: Cello Concerto, in Oslo, Norway
Others
1840 - Marriage of Robert Schumann, age 30, to Clara Wieck, on the day before her 21st birthday.
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.
