„Würde Sie’s zu sehr ermüden zu begleiten?“ – Clara Schumann als Lied- und Kammermusikpartnerin

80 percent of Clara Schumann‘s playbills in her complete collection of concert programmes (Robert-Schumann-Haus Zwickau) include vocal participation of solo singers, choirs or actors. The question is to which extent Clara Schumann used to accompany these vocal contributions herself on the piano. Only rarely are other accompanists named on the concert playbills, but evidence from concert reviews suggests that these vocal contributions normally served as rests for the solo pianist. Sometimes separate accompanists are named in the concert reviews. In orchestral concerts it was usually the conductor who accompanied solo songs on the piano, not the solo pianist. The Popular Concerts in St. James’s Hall in London were chamber concerts, which had a regular accompanist who was labelled as „conductor“ though there was no orchestra participating. These accompanists sometimes also performed with instrumentalists, e. g. basso continuo music from the 18th century or piano reductions of orchestral concerts.