Schumann: The Faces and the Masks

A challenging new biography of a major composer whose life and works have been the subject of intense controversy ever since his attempted suicide and early death in an insane asylum. Schumann was a key figure in the Romanticism movement that swept Europe and America in the 19th century. All the con [...]
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A challenging new biography of a major composer whose life and works have been the subject of intense controversy ever since his attempted suicide and early death in an insane asylum. Schumann was a key figure in the Romanticism movement that swept Europe and America in the 19th century. All the contradictions of the age enter his works, from his passionate love songs to his great 'Spring' and 'Rhenish' Symphonies. He was intensely original and imaginative, but he also worshipped the past--especially Shakespeare and Byron, Raphael and Michelangelo, Beethoven and Bach. Drawing on hitherto unpublished archive material, Chernaik sheds new light on Schumann's life and music, and she vividly brings the composer's world and his extraordinary artistic achievement to life in all its rich complexity.