Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau, Germany, on June 8, 1810, and died in Endenich, Germany, on July 29, 1856.  The first performance of the Piano Concerto took place at the Hall of the Hôtel de Saxe in Dresden, Germany, on December 4, 1845, with Clara Schumann as soloist, and Ferdinand Hiller, conducting. In addition to the solo piano, the Concerto is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. Approximate performance time is thirty-one minutes.

Robert Schumann composed the Piano Concerto for his beloved wife, the pianist and composer Clara Wieck Schumann. The work originated in May of 1841 as a Fantasy in A minor for piano and orchestra. In 1845, Schumann added two movements to the Fantasy. Clara Schumann wrote in her diary: “(The Fantasy) has now become a concerto that I mean to play next winter. I am very glad about it for I have always wanted a great bravura piece by him.” The following month, Clara enthused: “I am happy as a king at the thought of playing it with orchestra.”

Clara Schumann was the soloist in the December 4, 1845, premiere of Robert’s Concerto in A minor for Piano and Orchestra. The first performance took place in Dresden at the Hall of the Hôtel de Saxe, led by the work’s dedicatee, conductor Ferdinand Hiller. On New Year’s Day, 1846, Clara Schumann played the new Concerto with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, under Felix Mendelssohn’s direction. In many subsequent performances of the Schumann Piano Concerto, it was Robert who served as conductor/accompanist for his wife.

In a letter written to Clara a few years before their marriage, Robert Schumann described his conception of a piano concerto as “a compromise between a symphony, a concerto, and a huge sonata. I see I cannot write a concerto for the virtuosos—I must plan something else.” Despite the considerable technical challenges for the soloist, there is always an admirable sense of partnership between pianist and orchestra. And it is remarkable that although four years separate the composition of the first movement and the final two, the Concerto is an organic composition that proceeds unerringly from start to finish. These admirable qualities, as well as Schumann’s inspired lyrical gifts, are embodied in one of the finest piano concertos of the Romantic era.

The Concerto is in three movements, the final two played without pause. The first (Allegro affettuoso) opens in dramatic fashion, with a forte orchestral chord, immediately followed by an emphatic descending passage for the soloist. The winds sing the espressivo principal theme, soon repeated by the soloist. The brief second movement (Intermezzo. Andantino grazioso) is in A—B—A form. The soloist, in dialogue with the strings, presents the charming opening theme, derived from the ascending portion of the first movement’s principal melody. The cellos launch the more rhapsodic “B” section. In the finale (Allegro vivace), the soloist introduces the joyous principal theme, again related to the principal melody of the opening movement. The work concludes with an expansive coda, in which the soloist takes center stage, closing with a dazzling, ascending flourish.