I’ve written about this before, but this collection brings my attention to the subject of the love triangle between Robert Schumann, his wife Clara and the young composer Johannes Brahms. Their friendship was so close, that at the time questions were asked. Clara and Robert were important members of the artistic community, they were a star couple. The tabloids of the 19th century probably gossiped long column about what this strange young composer did in their family.
When they invited Brahms to play some of his pieces for them, the Schumanns already had four children. Their marriage was stable and full of love. Yet according to many later writers, there was romance between Clara and Johannes from the beginning. They probably never did anything with it, except for writing each other hot letters. When Robert died at a rather young age, they were free to consummate their love, but why didn’t they?
Instead of looking dreamily into each other’s eyes, the two focussed on their career: Brahms on his compositions, Clara Schumann on promoting her late husband’s, and both on touring Europe. They might have met while touring, but most contact was in the endless stream of letters, for forty years.