It would be very unfair to compare the Schumanns’ piano concertos (both in the same key, a minor) with one another. One (Clara’s) is the – albeit brilliant – work of a teenager, while the other is the product of a 35-year-old, mature composer at the height of his powers.

What is indisputable, however, is that Clara’s concerto makes complete nonsense of her own assertion that: “A woman must not wish to compose, there never was one able to do it.”

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