Friedrich Kalkbrenner seriously intended to become Kalkbrenner's pupil, but he changed his mind after this encounter with the celebrated man: Clara Schumann, wife of composer Robert Schumann, and herself an eminent pianist and composer, spent several months in Paris during the year 1839. She met many of the Parisian pianists, Kalkbrenner among them. In a letter home to her father, piano pedagogue Friedrich Wieck, she wrote: German poet and satirist Heinrich Heine in his "Letters on Music from Paris (1840–47)" wrote with biting wit on musical life and musicians in the French capital. Kalkbrenner was the target of some of Heine’s more
Friedrich Wieck to spreading vicious rumours against the couple. He sent copies of his court documents to every city where Clara was planning to give concerts. When she traveled to Hamburg and Berlin to perform, he sent letters claiming that Clara's playing had declined. Striking an emotional blow against Clara, he began to promote the career of a rival female pianist, Camilla Pleyel. In July 1840, the court ruled against Wieck, and it gave consent to the marriage. Schumann then sued Wieck for slander and won. Wieck was forced to pay the couple a large sum, and he was sentenced to jail