Robert Schumann must be counted among the more prolific composers of concertos; his list of works includes three concertos or concertante compositions for piano, two for violin, one for cello and a tour de force for four French horns. Concertos and concerto sketches are spreadeagled across his career from the very beginning – even before the beginning – to the very end. Schumann got off to a slow start, however. In his youth he planned several piano concertos without bringing any to a conclusion, and even the wonderful work that he produced at his third serious try, at the age of thirty – the Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra of 1841 – was retired when it went on to greater things as the first movement of the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54.

Various projects are noted in his diary in 1827–8, when he was still vacillating between a career in literature or music – projects, or whims? Piano concertos in E minor, F minor and E flat major that he mentions have left no trace, and only the flimsiest of sketches attest to concertos in B flat major and C minor. He first serious effort was an F major work drafted over several months in 1830–1, along with the Abegg variations and Papillons, his first opuses. By this time he had decided on a career in music – as a piano virtuoso. That, of course, is why he needed a concerto.