Becoming Clara Schumann

Performance Strategies and Aesthetics in the Culture of the Musical Canon by Alexander Stefaniak Well before she married Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann wasalready an internationally renowned pianist, and she concertizedextensively for several decades after her husband’s death. Despitebeing tied professionally to Robert, Clara forged her own career andplayed an important role in forming what we now recognize as theculture of classical music.Becoming Clara Schumann guides readers through her entirecareer, including performance, composition, edits to her husband’smusic, and teaching. Alexander Stefaniak brings together the fullrun of Schumann’s concert programs, detailed accounts of herperformances and reception, and other previously unexploredprimary source material to illuminate how she positioned herselfwithin larger currents in concert life and musical aesthetics. Hereveals that she was an accomplished strategist, having playedroughly 1,300 concerts across western and central Europe