This retirement was interrupted in 1844, by a long concert tour planned by Clara.  She was firmly decided to go and made Robert solemnly promise to accompany her to St. Petersburg.  He was loath to leave the quiet he loved, but it had to be done.  Clara had great success everywhere, as a pianist, giving many recitals during their travels from place to place.  From Russia the artist pair went to Helsingfors, Stockholm and Copenhagen.  They started on their tour in January and did not reach home till the first of June.

Schumann now seemed to lose interest in the Journal and expressed a wish to withdraw from it and live only for his creative art.  An alarming state of health—­both mind and body—­seemed to make this retirement desirable.  Perhaps owing to this condition of health he decided to leave Leipsic for good and make his home in Dresden.  He and his wife took formal leave of Leipsic in a Matinee musical given on the eighth of December.

But life in Dresden became even more strenuous and more racking than it had been in Leipsic.  He threw himself into the labor of composing the epilogue of Goethe’s “Faust” with such ardor that he fell into an intensely nervous state where work was impossible.  However, with special medical treatment he so far recovered that he was able to resume the work, but still was not himself.  We can divine from brief remarks he let drop from time to time, that he lived in constant fear—­fear of death, insanity or disaster of some kind.  He could not bear the sight of Sonnenstein, an insane asylum near Dresden.  Mendelssohn’s sudden death in November, 1847, was a great shock and preyed on his mind.

Schumann had intervals of reprieve from these morbid dreams, and he again began to compose with renewed—­almost abnormal—­vigor and productiveness.

The artist pair took a trip to Vienna where Clara gave several concerts.  They spent some weeks there and before returning to Dresden, gave two splendid concerts in Prague, where Schumann received a perfect ovation for his piano quintette and some songs.  A little later the two artists made a trip north.  In Berlin Robert conducted a performance of “Paradise and the Peri” at the Singakademie, while Clara gave two recitals.

This year of 1847 was a very active one outside of the musical journeys.  The master composed several piano trios, much choral music, and began the opera “Genevieve,” which was not completed however, until the middle of 1848.  All the compositions of the previous year were perfectly lucid and sane.  The opera unfortunately had a text from which all the beauty and romance had been left out.

The music, however, revealed a rare quality of creative power, combined with deep and noble feeling.  Schumann’s nature was more lyric than dramatic; he was not born to write for the stage.  The lyric portions of his opera are much the best.  He did not realize that he failed on the dramatic side in his work, indeed seemed quite unconscious of the fact.