He certainly robbed Clara of her potential.
Before she had the misfortune to meet him, she was happily playing Henselt, Liszt and Thalberg in concert which she later dropped in favour of his Teutonic Trash.
Hello Thalbergmad! I feel I must respond now having only just begun my current journey elsewhere. I was not going to return here until September. I shall make an exception in this case. Thank you for your response. I look forward to continuing our discussion when I return in September.
First, I ask that you consider responding to my newly created thread entitled
Five (5) questions for members of the “I hate Schumann club” that you will currently find about 10 threads below (in this Repertoire piano board). I made this thread especially for you and your followers! I hope you will consider responding to this, my intellectual honesty challenge to you. I look forward to your participation in this thread.
Secondly, history has judged Henselt and Thalberg to be mere footnotes in the annals of music history. You will correct me if you believe that this is not the case.
Henselt and Thalberg have their names merely mentioned only one time in my 3rd edition of Donald Grout’s “A History of Western Music”. The mention of their names appears in the below quote from this book. You may wish to comment on this. Robert Schumann on the other hand has multiple pages devoted to him in this book discussing the following: Chamber music of, Choral works of, Lieder of, Opera of, Piano music of, Symphonies of, etc. You may also wish to comment on this.
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Donald Grout
"A History of Western Music" - 3rd edition
Chapter XVII
The Nineteenth Century: Instrumental Music
The Piano
The piano of the nineteenth century was a quite different instrument from the one for which Mozart had written…... Etc., Etc.
At the beginning of the century there were two distinct schools of piano playing: one emphasized clarity of texture and fluency of technique, and was represented by Mozart’s talented pupil Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837). The other school, to which Beethoven certainly belonged, …… Etc., Etc.
As technical requirements became constantly more exacting and new styles of piano music developed in the nineteenth century, several important schools of playing and composition emerged. Elegance and sentiment, brightness and clarity, were the goals of Clementi’s pupil John Field (1782-1837), Hummel’s pupil
Adolf von Henselt (1814-99), and (for the most part) Chopin, whose early works in particular show the influence of Hummel’s style. Other pianists aimed rather at impressiveness, audacity, and showmanship. The most conspicuous figures here were Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785-1849),
Sigismund Thalberg (1812-71), and the exotic American Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-69)—all successful display pianists but, as composers, decidedly of second rank. A third group were the great virtuosos of the nineteenth century, outstanding for both technical and interpretive gifts, the “Titans of the piano:” Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein (1829-94), Hans von Billow (1830-94), and Karl Tausig (1841 —71). Of these, Liszt and Rubinstein were also important as composers and von Billow as a conductor.
The best composers and performers of piano music in the nineteenth century tried to avoid the two extremes of sentimental salon music and pointless technical display. Among those whose style and technique were primarily determined by the musical substance, without superfluous ornament or bravura, were Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Clara Wieck Schumann (1819-96).
Etc, Etc.
Topic: Why do so many think the Schumann concerto sucks?