Wednesday evening I attended the performance of Twin Spirits: Portraying the love of Robert and Clara Schumann in words and music. This program took place in the 400 seat Allen Room at Lincoln Center and starred Sting (as Robert Schumann) and Trudie Styler (as Clara Wieck Schumann), violinist Joshua Bell, pianist Jeremy Denk, baritone Nathan Gunn, cellist Nina Kotova, soprano Camille Zamora, pianist Natasha Paremski and was narrated by actor David Strathairn.
Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) had hoped to become a concert pianist, but a hand injury forced him to turn to composition. After a long legal battle with his piano teacher Friedrich Weick, Schumann married Weick's daughter, pianist Clara Weick, who also composed music and had a considerable concert career, often including premiers of many of her husband's works. For the last two years of his life, after an attempted suicide, Robert was confined to a mental institution at his own request, dying there in 1856. Clara died 40 years later. They are buried together in Bonn, Germany.
(Seen in the audience: Mayor Michael Bloomberg and actor Joel Grey)
After the Twin Spirits program, I went next door to Dizzy's Coca-Cola to hear the Antonio Madruga Trio. "Tony" began taking formal piano lessons at age 5 and has just turned 16.
