Robert Schumann was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. His teacher, Friedrich Wieck, a German pianist, had assured him that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing.
Robert Schumann
Schumann's birth house, now the Robert Schumann House, after an anonymous colourized lithograph
Schumann's music room in the Robert Schumann House, Zwickau
A youthful Robert Schumann
The Oxford Companion to Music defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of musical aesthetics.
Eduard Hanslick, an influential music critic of the 19th-century