Original Broadside for her 1858 Vienna Performance

A very rare original broadside advertising a concert given by the great German pianist and composer, wife of Robert Schumann and famous muse of Johannes Brahms, in Vienna on December 12, 1858. The program included the Piano Trio no. 2 and the Drei Stücke im Volkston by her husband, as well as arias and solo piano works by Bach, Scarlatti, Weber, Beethoven, and others, and was hosted by the venerable Viennese Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music.) 

Schumann had been a favorite of audiences in Vienna since her debut there (as Clara Wieck) at the age of 18, after which she had been named "k. k. Kammer-Virtuosin" (Chamber Virtuoso to the Austrian court) and an honorary member of the Society of Friends of Music. Now, twenty years and eight children later and two years after her husband's death, she was still captivating audiences around Europe, albeit in a more serious fashion than before: "She was no longer a glamorous young woman but a solemn ‘priestess’ of the art. Dressed in black, unsmiling and performing ‘serious’ music, aged 37, she devoted herself to her children and her husband’s memory and music." (Nancy B. Reich, Grove Music Online) (13761)

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Classical Music

Program, unsigned

Broadside

• Sold