The Schumanns and Johannes Brahms
Year: 1991
Author: Eugenie Schumann
Length: 217 pages
In performing research for my own historical fiction book, I’ve read a lot of books about Clara Schumann and the Schumann family. Some of these biographies have been about Robert Schumann, and others about Clara herself. The Schumanns and Johannes Brahms was one of the more interesting books I read, as it is technically a memoir of one of Robert and Clara’s children, Eugenie Schumann. As such, this memoir had a unique flavor from the biographies I had been reading.
Of course, as Robert had died while Eugenie was quite young, this was a section of the memoir that was not possible to expand upon. It would have been interesting to get more of a sense of how Clara and Robert acted around their kids, but such is the tragedy of this life cut too short. Fortunately, the focus of my research was Clara Schumann, and this book had details in spades. At least, it gave a good sense of how she ran her household as the sole breadwinner and caretaker of a large family.
As a memoir, there’ are a lot of intimate details of the everyday life of famous musicians like Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. This ability to make these iconic individuals feel human is the greatest asset of this book. Sure, there is also a clear bias as this book was written through the lens of Eugenie’s experiences. However, that we even have this kind of account from the mid-to-late 1800s is quite the rare treat. It gave a sense of what life in Europe was like around the turn of the century, but also what it was like living with one of the best piano players to play the instrument.
An insightful memoir into the lives of famous classical musicians, I give The Schumanns and Johannes Brahms 4.0 stars out of 5.
