Clara Schumann Wieck learned to compose, and from childhood to middle age she produced a good body of work. Clara wrote that "composing gives me great pleasure... there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound". At age fourteen she wrote her piano concerto, with some help from Robert Schumann, and performed it at age sixteen at the Leipzig Gewandhaus with Mendelssohn conducting. As she grew older, however, she became more preoccupied with other responsibilities in life and found it hard to compose regularly,
Musical works of Franz Liszt subject of his Impromptus, Op. 5, is a melody by Clara Wieck, and that of the "Études symphoniques", Op. 13, is a melody by the father of Ernestine von Fricken, Schumann's first fiancée. The slow movements of Schumann's piano sonatas Opp. 11 and 22 are paraphrases of own early songs. For the finale of his Op. 22 sonata, Schumann took melodies by Clara Wieck again. His last compositions, written at the sanatorium at Endenich, were piano accompaniments for violin "Caprices" by Paganini. Although Liszt's arrangements had precedents, he was still subject to criticism. A review in the "Leipziger Allgemeine musikalische