First Mondays at Jordan Hall: Clara and Robert Schumann

Here’s a secret of great artistry: no one does it alone.

This season, First Mondays explore connections and friendships between composers and musicians who inspired each other.

Join us as we celebrate 35 years of First Mondays: well-loved classics and new compositions, performed by some of the finest chamber musicians in the world, free and open to all.

Notes on the program from Artistic Director Laurence Lesser

This fall’s three concerts are a series built on the deep friendship among five great musicians: Clara and Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Joseph Joachim, and Johannes Brahms. To varying degrees all were composers and performers.

October 7: Clara and Robert Schumann

Clara Wieck Schumann was born in 1819, 200 years ago. The love that united her and Robert had music at its core. While Clara deferred to Robert as composer, she was one of the most famous pianists of her time. But her “Romances” of 1853, dedicated to the wonderful violinist Joseph Joachim (born 1832), show her deeply felt gift for composition. Robert’s part of the program includes his preoccupation with the human voice as an expression of love. His “chamber music year” (1842) finished with the enduringly popular piano quintet.