The unresolved and ambiguous details of Robert Schumann’s psychological decline and death have tended to dominate his biography. Yet in his time Schumann was lauded as a protean Romantic literary genius whose writings, as a music critic, poet, novelist and dramatist, eclipsed his musical creativity. How did Schumann reconcile these elements? Does his music suggest he suffered from bipolar disorder? How did his pianist wife, Clara, influence his compositions? The narration is illustrated with some of Schumann’s finest works including excerpts from the symphonies, his song cycle Dichterliebe, the piano works Papillons and Carnaval, and the Piano Concerto, among others.

Davinia Caddy studied music at the University of Cambridge, where she graduated with a BA (Hons), MPhil and, in 2005, a PhD. Her doctoral dissertation was broadly based on French musical culture from 1890 to 1914. She has since taught at the Universities of Oxford, Oxford Brookes and Auckland. Her books include The Ballets Russes and Beyond: Music and Dance in Belle-Époque Paris (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Musicology and Dance: Historical and Critical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2020, co-edited with Maribeth Clark), and How to Hear Classical Music, a contemporary guide to the Western classical repertoire written for the general public (Awa Press, 2013).