Understated and sensitive performances by its three stars make this period piece a success. Katharine Hepburn is Clara (Weick) Schumann, thevgreat pianist and wife of composer Robert Schumann (Paul Henreid). She subjugates her professional career to love, marriage and household, always supporting her husband, who later suffers from psychological ailments that eventually prove debilitating. Robert Walker plays Johannes Brahms, who enters their lives and becomes a fixture.
The script takes liberties with the truth, but not so many as to distort the essences of its three subjects or their relationships. Precisely how much Brahms loved Clara, or she him, is not known. But clearly the three of them shared a love of music and each other that was mostly harmonious.
The story is set in a time and place that was blessed with a bounty of musical talent and genius. The intersection of the lives of so many musical greats is always of interest to me. My favorite scene in the film is when Clara, responding to a request to play by Franz Liszt (Henry Daniell), counters his bombastic performance with a demonstration of subdued romanticism while gently delivering a monologue that is a thinly-veiled criticism of his style.
This film should be enjoyable to fans of classical music. Schumann's "Traumerei" is particularly used to great effect.
The script takes liberties with the truth, but not so many as to distort the essences of its three subjects or their relationships. Precisely how much Brahms loved Clara, or she him, is not known. But clearly the three of them shared a love of music and each other that was mostly harmonious.
The story is set in a time and place that was blessed with a bounty of musical talent and genius. The intersection of the lives of so many musical greats is always of interest to me. My favorite scene in the film is when Clara, responding to a request to play by Franz Liszt (Henry Daniell), counters his bombastic performance with a demonstration of subdued romanticism while gently delivering a monologue that is a thinly-veiled criticism of his style.
This film should be enjoyable to fans of classical music. Schumann's "Traumerei" is particularly used to great effect.