Documentaries

Factual: History

Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: A Robert Schumann Album

The Essay: A Robert Schumann Album: Episode 5: The Final Pages

A Robert Schumann Album

Episode 5

Episode 5: The Final Pages

The Final Pages

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, A Robert Schumann Album, The Final PagesClose menu

John Worthen reconsiders the facts about Schumann's final episode of mental illness.

Biographer John Worthen reconsiders the facts about Schumann's long and final episode of mental illness.

On February 27 1854 at the age of 43 Schumann attempted to drown himself in the river Rhine. He was taken to the mental asylum at Endenich near Bonn, where he spent the last 29 months of his life. Much has been written about the causes of his illness, but that information was able to be revisited in detail when the notes written by the doctors who cared for him came to light in the 1990's. John Worthen thinks that through these notes some new thoughts should be examined about the nature of the illness. Schumann had periods of illness throughout his marriage to Clara, and there are suggestions that this could have been caused by depression, nervous instability or syphilis. John Worthen reaches his own conclusion in this Essay, but feels that it's time the catch-all of mental instability was revised and a clearer analysis of both Schumann's health as well as illness was undertaken.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Series revealing different aspects of Robert Schumann's life and work

Series revealing different aspects of Robert Schumann's life and work, including his marriage, writing, children and his mental illness

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Essay

A Robert Schumann Album

Episode 5: The Final Pages

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3