Frauenliebe und Leben, Op.42 • Vollständiger Satz

How many women can proudly tell that they can find full understanding and support from their husband? We all are accustomed to think that women of the past were totally suppressed by men who didn’t let them develop and only forced them to cook and raise numerous children. But sometimes the case was quite different. The Schumann couple, Clara and Robert, debunks the stereotype. She was his muse, whom he devoted his most romantic and touching “Lieder”. One of these songs is “Woman's Love and Life, Op.42”. It is a hymn to women’s self-forgetful devotion to her husband and children, to her love and life. Throughout the composition we can see how the woman finds the course of her life. Unfortunately happiness isn’t constant, and when her husband dies, the vessel of her love cracks… Robert had gone long before his wife as well, as if he would foresee their destiny from the very beginning.