- 1819
- On September 13, Clara Josephine Wieck is born in Leipzig as the second
of five children of the music teacher and piano firm owner Friedrich Wieck (1785 - 1873) and the soprano
Marianne Tromlitz (1797 - 1872).
- 1824
- Clara starts formal piano lessons with her father after
her mother left the family. Friedrich Wieck had resolved even before her birth
that she should become a great piano virtuoso. He develops his own teaching method
and gives her daily lessons in piano, violin, singing, theory, harmony,
composition, counterpoint.
Picture of Clara Wieck and her father
- 1825
- Divorce of her parents in January. Her mother marries Adolph Bargiel in August.
- 1828
- Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) arrives in Leipzig and has first contacts to Friedrich Wieck.
Friedrich Wieck marries Clementine Fechner in July.
After several private performances Clara makes her public debut in a concert in the Leipziger Gewandhaus
on October 20 at the age of 9.
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- 1830
-
Clara gives successfull private concerts in Dresden, March 6 to April 7.
After spending a year at the University of Heidelberg, Robert Schumann
returns to Leipzig to study with Friedrich Wieck and to live in his house.
Clara gives her first complete solo concert in the Leipziger Gewandhaus, November 8, at the age of 11.
She writes her first piano composition, Quatre polonaises pour le pianoforte, op.1
- 1831 - 1832
- First extended concert tour with her father in Germany and France (Paris).
Among other private and public performances she plays for Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, aged 82, in Weimar.
Picture of Clara Wieck 1832
- 1831 - 1835
- Extensive concert tours in Germany.
Clara composes several piano pieces: Caprices en forme de valse, op.2, Romance varie, op.3,
Valses romantiques, op. 4, Quatre pieces characteristiques, op. 5, as well as other lost piano pieces
and song accompaniments: Romanze für Gesang und Klavier, Walzer für Gesang und Klavier
- 1835
- She is acknowledged throughout Europe as a phenomenally talented child prodigy; among her admirers are
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Paganini, Chopin (whom she meets in Leipzig in 1835), and Schumann.
Robert Schumann begins courtship of Clara.
Clara finishes the Premier concert pour le piano forte, op.7.
Picture of Clara Wieck 1835
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- 1836
- Friedrich Wieck prohibits the connection between
Robert Schumann and his daughter and tries to prevent
every contact.
Several concert tours in Germany.
Clara composes Soirées musicales, op. 6.
Picture of Clara Wieck 1836
- 1837
- Secret engagement of Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann, August 14.
Robert Schumann asks formally for permission to marry Clara.
Friedrich Wieck rejects because he considers it an unsuitable match.
A fierce three-year battle between him and the
couple begins.
Clara composes Variations de Concert pour le Piano-Forte sur la Cavatine du 'Pirate' de Bellini, op. 8.
Clara starts her first concert tour to Vienna, October 15 to May 15,
1838.
- 1838
- The Viennese concert tour is very successful, Clara is appointed "k.k. Kammervirtuosin"
(=Royal and Imperial Virtuosa) by the Austrian court. She gets to know the the piano virtuoso Franz Liszt and the
poet Franz Grillparzer, who honors her with the poem "Clara Wieck and Beethoven".
Souvenir de Vienne, Impromptu, op. 9, Scherzo pour le pianoforte, op. 10
- 1839
- Concert tour to Paris, February 6 to August 14.
Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck write a petition to the Court of Appeals to marry without
the consent of Friedrich Wieck.
Trois romances pour le piano, op. 11.
Picture of Robert Schumann 1839
- 1840
- The Court consents to the marriage. Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck marry on September 12,
one day before her 21st birthday. They settle in Leipzig.
Song accompaniments Am Strande, Volkslied.
Picture of Clara Wieck 1840
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References: cf. Bibliography
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