Description
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, is a famous Romantic concerto by Robert Schumann, completed in 1845. In 1841, Schumann wrote a fantasy for piano and orchestra, his Phantasie. His pianist wife Clara urged him to expand this piece into a full piano concerto. In 1845 he added the intermezzo and finale to make the completed work. It turned out to be the only piano concerto that Schumann completed.
The work may have been used as a model by Edvard Grieg in composing his own Piano Concerto, also in A minor. Grieg’s concerto, like Schumann’s, employs a single powerful orchestral chord at its introduction before the piano’s entrance with a similar descending flourish.
