Clara was 13 when she started composing this work, first as a single-movement concert piece. She orchestrated this, then with further help from Robert Schumann (her future husband – she was 14) in 1834.
Later that year she added the two movements with this work forming the last of three. Completed in June 1834, she orchestrated the work (undoing Robert’s work) in September 1835 slightly ahead of her 16th birthday.
The concerto was premiered in Leipzig that November with family friend Mendelssohn conducting. It’s scored for double woodwind, two horns, two trumpets, trombone, timpani, and strings – a typical early Romantic orchestration (see Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture).
As is usual for a concerto it’s in three movements – what is most notable perhaps is the slow movement – a Romance for piano and cello without orchestra.
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