Their relationship is the stuff of legend and, of course, song. When they met at the home of a mutual friend of both their parents, she was just nine, he eighteen, and her piano playing so inspired him that he resolved to give up law to study music with her father instead. A few years later, when she was just 13 and already a virtuoso, his mother remarked by way of congratulation after one of Clara's concerts, "You ought to marry my Robert someday." Two years later Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann did fall in love, and her father objected so furiously that he resorted to the courts to keep them apart. Finally, at 19 and 28, they wed and went on to become the music power couple of their era, the center of a creative maelstrom that included Liszt, Mendelssohn, Brahms, with whom they were particularly close, and seven progeny.
At New Marlborough's Meeting House on Saturday, September 20, as part of Music and More's ongoing series of cultural happenings, the love letters of Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann will be read by actors Eric Hill and Ariel Bock, of the Berkshire Theatre Festival. The readings will be interleaved with performances of compositions by the Schumanns and others in their circle by William Hite, tenor, Judith Gordon, piano, Ronald Gorevic, violin, and Matthias Naegele, cello. Says the series artistic director Harold Lewin, "In particular, the letters illuminate the tempestuous relationships between Clara, her husband-to-be Robert Schumann, and her domineering father." Juicy stuff. Music and More at The Meeting House 154 Hartsville-New Marlborough Road, New Marlborough; 513.229.2785 Saturday, September 20 at 4:30 Admission: $25; $20/members
