Clara Schumann’s life story has become a legend. Her childhood full of renunciation, her extraordinary talent, her great success as a pianist, her early love for the composer Robert Schumann, which she forced against her father, and the upbringing of seven children provide enough material for myths and clichés: from child prodigy to the ideal woman of romanticized ideas of love, from the exemplary mother to the unrecognized composer. But who was Clara really? The documentary approaches her personality from various perspectives – through her letters and diaries, through her compositions and through musicians who have dealt intensively with her: as interpreters of her music, as seekers in her biography, as time travelers. In doing so, important questions about Clara Schumann’s “three lives” are to be answered: as the daughter of a strict and ambitious father, as the wife of a famous composer, as an extremely successful artist. What was life like in her relationships? How was she seen, how did she see herself? What changed with her and through her? What do we owe to Clara Schumann today? The questions are answered from the social context of the time, while at the same time the link is always drawn to modern times in order to sharpen the profile of her personality as a pianist, composer, concert manager, editor and ultimately as an outstanding woman of the 19th century.
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