Clara

L and I went to look at the snowdrops on the wooded banks but I was completely sidetracked by this old woman with her unbrushed hair and long flowing dress making her way slowly across the field.

This evening we went to I, Clara at the Salisbury Playhouse. It is the sixth of the Composer Portrait concerts created by the talented pianist, Lucy Parham: a telling in music and words of the life of Clara Wieck/Schumann. I knew a little about Clara - about how her prodigious talent as both pianist and composer enabled her to tour Europe giving concerts at a time when women were expected to stay at home. But I hadn't registered that she was the sole breadwinner for the family - they had eight children - while Robert Schumann was in an asylum for the two years before his death then for the next 36 years. Four of her children predeceased her and two of those left their own children to be brought up by Clara. How on earth did she maintain a public life?

Lucy Parham played all the music - by Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms - by heart, as Clara played. She had also written the words, based on Clara Schumann's diaries, which were read by Harriet Walter.

A memorable evening.