The grand piano made by André Stein (1776-1842) in Vienna is numbered 513 and was commissioned by Friedrich Wieck for his daughter Clara. An entry from 1828 in the young Clara’s diary reads: “On the 4th of March I received the cherry wood 6-octave grand piano which had been ordered for me from Mr Stein in Vienna (Archive, Robert Schumann House). On the 20th October 1828, the nine-year-old Clara Wieck played on the instrument at her first public performance in the Leipzig Gewandhaus (cloth hall). Father Wieck later sold the instrument to friends, the Focke family, whose great-great grandson made a gift of it to the Zwickau Schumann Museum in 1911. In 1995/96 it was expertly restored by Robert A. Brown (Arnsdorf near Salzburg). The Zwickau grand piano served as the model for the image on the reverse of the former 100 DM banknotes.

The audio sample is Robert Schumann’s Polonaise No. 7 G minor (RSW app. G1) from 1828, played by the piano duo Dian Baker & Eckart Sellheim on the Clara Wieck grand piano. This is a live recording of their concert at the Robert Schumann House on June 11, 2007.

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