Clara Schumann

Clara Schumann—pianist, composer, and leading figure of early Romanticism—wrote a substantial body of piano music as a teenager under the rigorous training of Friedrich Wieck. Between 1831 and 1837 she produced the works gathered in FE007—Caprices en Forme de Valses (Op. 2), Romance Variée (Op. 3), Valses Romantiques (Op. 4), 4 Pièces Caractéristiques (Op. 5), Soirées musicales (Op. 6), and Variations de Concert (Op. 8)—which combine poised virtuosity with clear melodic writing, inventive harmony, and idiomatic keyboard textures. Active in the same circles as Mendelssohn, Chopin, and later Liszt, she developed a distinct compositional voice that balances character-piece refinement with concert bravura, and she performed these works widely while establishing a European career. Although later years reduced her time for composition, these early pieces show a fully formed musical mind and a command of form that extends from cyclical suites to variation technique. Her music is especially rewarding for advanced pianists seeking early-Romantic repertoire that couples technical sophistication with lyrical depth and disciplined structure.