The Stories about Music Films: 54. Geliebte Clara (2008)

 

Basic Info

Title: Geliebte Clara

Genre: Biography, Drama, Music

Country: Germany, France, Hungary

Language: German

Running time: 107 minutes

Release date: 4 December 2008 (Germany), 13 May 2009 (France)

Staff

Director: Helma Sanders-Brahms

Producer: Alfred Huermer

Screenplay by: Helma Sanders-Brahms

Music: Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann

Cinematography: Jürgen Jürges

Edited by: Isabelle Devinck

Cast

Martina Gedeck as Clara Schumann

Pascal Greggory as Robert Schumann

Malik Zidi as Johannes Brahms

Summary

"Geliebte Clara" is a 2008 Franco-German-Hungarian film directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms and the last film she directed before her death in 2014. The film tells the story about the pianist Clara Schumann and her marriage with the composer Robert Schumann.

Clara Schumann

Plot

After performing Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor in Hamburg, where the Schumanns get to know the young composer Johannes Brahms, Clara and Robert Schumann live in a new home in Düsseldorf, where Schumann begins his new job as musical director. 

Clara and Robert Schumann

The demands for his new composition, the Rhenish Symphony, creates tension between him and Clara. Shortly thereafter, Brahms introduces some of his works to the Schumanns, and they are impressed by his compositional and pianistic skills. Allowed to stay with them, 

Johannes Brahms

Brahms takes care of their children. Shortly after the successful premiere of the Rhenish Symphony, Schumann gets to know Dr. Richartz who will help him with his health problems. Schumann considers the talented Brahms as his successor, but Brahms leaves Schumann's house when he realizes that he has feelings more than just friendship for Clara... (Continue)

Movie Review

“Really Hearing the Music”

“Music draws you into the story”

“Lifetime love story”

“Really good”

“Must see”

Interesting stories about the film

1. Helma Sanders-Brahms, who was a director and writer of the film, is a great-great-grandniece of depicted composer Johannes Brahms in the film.

Helma Sanders-Brahms

2. Nikolai Kinski, the actor playing young Robert Schumann, is the half- brother of Nastassja Kinski, who played Clara Schumann in the film “Frühlingssinfonie (1983).” However, the opening scene of young Robert and young Clara was cut for theatrical release.

Frühlingssinfonie (1983)

From this week, I would like to introduce my film writer page to below links, which I established on the film site “FilmFreeway,” to submit a video to a film festival in Germany, to which I was invited at the beginning of this year.

Thank you.

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100. Classical Music: 15. Johannes Brahms, ACJ Music Academy

How are you?

This week's lecture is “Johannes Brahms”, the 15th topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “100. Classical Music: 15. Johannes Brahms” introduced on August 26th, 2017.

Johannes Brahms, born on May 7, 1833 and died on April 3, 1897, was a German composer, pianist and conductor of the Romantic era. Born into a Lutheran family in Hamburg, he spent most of his musical career in Vienna. 

The building in Hamburg where Brahms
was born (1891)

He is sometimes included in one of the "Three Bs" of music, first mentioned by 19th-century conductor Hans von Bülow along with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Hans von Bülow

Brahms composed works for orchestra, chamber music, piano, organ, voice and chorus, and as a virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with leading contemporary performers, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim, and many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire.

Clara Schumann

Joseph Joachim

Brahms' father, Johann Jakob Brahms, was from the town of Heide in Holstein. Against the family's will, Johann Jakob pursued a musical career, and after arriving in Hamburg in 1826 he worked as a string and wind player and a professional musician. In 1830, he married a seamstress Johanna Henrika Christiane Nissen, who was 17 years older than he was.

Johannes Brahms (1853)

 

Brahms received his first musical training from his father and also learned to play the violin and the basics of playing the cello. Having studied piano with Otto Friedrich Willibald Cossel from 1840, Brahms made his debut as a performer at the age of 10. From 1845 to 1848 Brahms studied piano with the pianist and composer Eduard Marxsen who was Cossel's teacher, and in 1847 he made his first public appearance as a solo pianist in Hamburg.

Eduard Marxsen

In the summer of 1896, Brahms was diagnosed with jaundice, and later that year his doctor in Vienna diagnosed him with liver cancer. His last public appearance was on March 7, 1897, when he saw Hans Richter conduct his Symphony No. 4. 

Hans Richter (conductor)

His condition gradually deteriorated, and he died on April 3, 1897 in Vienna at the age of 63. He was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery under a monument designed by Victor Horta along with sculpture by Ilse Twardowski-Conrat.

Brahms’ Grave in the Vienna Central
Cemetery

Brahms has been considered a traditionalist and an innovator by his contemporaries and later writers, and his music has its roots in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. 

Although some of his contemporaries considered his music to be overly academic, his contributions and craftsmanship were praised by subsequent musicians such as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. 

Arnold Schoenberg

Edward Elgar

The highly structured character of Brahms' works was a starting point and an inspiration for composers, and the romantic motifs are deeply embedded within those structures.

Monument dedicated to Brahms, Max
Klinger (1909)

Thank you.

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The Stories about Music Films: 49. Spring Symphony (1983)

Basic Info

Title: Spring Symphony (Frühlingssinfonie)

Genre: Biography, Music

Country: Germany

Language: German

Running time: 103 minutes

Release date: 8 April 1983

Staff

Director: Peter Schamoni

Producer: Wolfgang Hammerschmidt, Ralph T. Niemeyer, Peter Schamoni

Screenplay by: Peter Schamoni

Music: Herbert Grönemeyer

Cinematography: Gérard Vandenberg

Edited by: Elfie Tillack

Cast

Nastassja Kinski as Clara Wieck

Herbert Grönemeyer as Robert Schumann

Rolf Hoppe as Friedrich Wieck

Summary

"Spring Symphony" is a 1983 West German historical drama film directed by Peter Schamoni and starring Nastassja Kinski, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Rolf Hoppe. The film portrays the life of the pianist Clara Wieck and her relationship with the composer Robert Schumann. The film's sets were designed by the art director Alfred Hirschmeier. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin and in various places in Saxony including Dresden, Leipzig and Zwickau.

Movie Review

“Stunning film about Clara Wieck”

“A Romance in Music”

“Subtitles would have been a plus”

“An apathetic vision of a mad love”

Clara Wieck

Clara Josephine Schumann (Clara Wieck) was a German pianist, composer and piano teacher, born on September 13, 1819 and died on May 20, 1896. Regarded as one of the most famous pianists of the Romantic era, she changed the format and repertoire of the piano recital from displays of virtuosity to programs of serious works. Exercising her influence over a 61-year concert career, she also composed a variety of works, including solo piano pieces, a piano concerto, chamber music, and choral pieces.

She grew up in Leipzig, where her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a professional pianist and teacher, and her mother was an accomplished singer. Having received a musical training from her father, she was a child prodigy and she began touring at the age of 11, where she achieved success in several cities, including Paris and Vienna. 

Friedrich Wieck

She married composer Robert Schumann, and they had eight children. 

Clara and Robert Schumann

They maintained a close relationship with Johannes Brahms, and she publicly premiered many works by her husband Schumann and Brahms.

Johannes Brahms

After Schumann's early death, she continued her concert tours in Europe for decades with the violinist Joseph Joachim and other chamber musicians. 

Joseph Joachim and Clara Schumann, Adolph Menzel

Although she died in Frankfurt, she was buried beside her husband in Bonn.

Robert & Clara Schumann's Grave

Thank you.

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