Hallo? Is that Clara Schumann’s phone?
Daily Comfort ZoneStudents at the West Saxon University of Applied Sciences in Zwickau have utilised AI to enable visitors to the Robert Schumann birthplace Museum to talk to Clara on her home phone.
Clara was listed in the Frankfurt directory from 1890. Her number was Frankfurt 1037. The students have cloned phrases from her letters to deliver appropriate responses to anyone phoning Clara from the Museum.
The new programme is scheduled to start in spring 2025, DPA reports.
Here are a few questions, for starters:
So, Clara, which of you wrote most of the Schumann concerto?
Did Brahms ever pop the question?
Did you ever consider changing costume for the second half of a concert?
Who’s your favourite violinist?
More questions welcomed.
Clara, please discuss the playing of Felix, Frederick, Franz and his pupil Karl, Hans, Anton and his brother Nikolai; furthermore, take all the time you need for I have all the time in the world to listen to you.
Clara maintained, and I paraphrase here, that in her opinion the notoriously self-critical Brahms had impulsively destroyed his finest compositions (she was generally given a first look at what he composed). If I had a chance to have just one conversation with Clara Schumann, I think that is the topic I would want to explore with her.