SCHUMANN-HAUS LEIPZIG TO UNDERGO REDESIGN, WITH CLARA IN MIND

Schumann-Haus Leipzig | schumann-verein.de

Classical music insider website Slippedisc is reporting a major development at the Schumann-Haus in Leipzig - chiefly, that it is scheduled to undergo what on the surface, appears to be a not insignificant amount of remodeling, set to coincide with the 2019 Schumann Festival Week held annually in the Saxon city.

The breaking news site describes the renovation as one that will "knock down walls" to make room for Clara, the composer and wife of Leipzig icon Robert Schumann. 

The reconstruction is confirmed on the Schumann-Haus website in scant detail, save for the vague preface that the redesign will shower extra focus onto the Mrs., with a representative of the Schumann-Verein Leipzig promising the renovation will be a "newly remodeled museum, completely designed with Clara Schumann in mind."

This historical significance of this museum is exemplary: it was the first apartment shared by the Schumann's as a couple and played host as a leading salon for some major movers and shakers of the Romantic era: Hector Berlioz, Félix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt were all known to frequent the home, and it's where Robert Schumann famously composed his "Spring Symphony" (no. 1 in b flat major), from the comfort of his former study.

The renovated relic is scheduled to open in September 2019 in time for the yearly Festival, which, incidentally, coincides with Robert and Clara's wedding anniversary on the 12th of September (1840), and Clara's birthday, on the 13th (1819).

Listen below to Robert Schumann's "Spring Symphony," performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtwängler (live recording, Munich, October 29, 1951:)


- Rose.

BACK TO HOME PAGE