Clara Schumann at the age of nine, Clara Wieck performed at the Leipzig home of Dr. Ernst Carus, director of the mental hospital at Colditz Castle. There, she met another gifted young pianist who had been invited to the musical evening, Robert Schumann, who was nine years older. Schumann admired Clara's playing so much that he asked permission from his mother to stop studying law, which had never interested him much, and take music lessons with Clara's father. While taking lessons, he rented a room in the Wieck household, staying about a year. He would sometimes dress up as a ghost and
Fantasie in C (Schumann) not spotted until 1910. The text of the passage quoted is: "Accept then these songs [beloved, which I sang for you alone]". Both the Schlegel stanza and the Beethoven quotation are appropriate to Schumann's current situation of separation from Clara Wieck. Schumann wrote to Clara: "The first movement may well be the most passionate I have ever composed – a deep lament for you". They still had many tribulations to suffer before they finally married four years later. Liszt was one of the few pianists capable of meeting the then-unparalleled demands of the "Fantasie", particularly the second movement coda's rapid