Clara Schumann (née Wieck) was born into a musical family in Leipzig; her father a piano teacher, her mother a singer. Her father put Clara through an early intensive musical education which bore much fruit. At the age of eight she gave a piano recital attended by a sixteen year-old Robert Schumann who then chose to study with her father. Her father, however, did not approve of Robert’s proposal of marriage when she was eighteen and the couple had to go to court to bypass the paternal obstruction. They went on to have eight children but Robert’s mental illness and early death in 1856 laid a burden upon Clara and she was the main breadwinner. It was as a pianist that Clara attained celebrity status across Europe both as a soloist and also as accompanist to the violinist Josef Joachim. Through Joachim she and Robert had met the young Brahms whom they encouraged. She had a significant influence in the development of the style and content of piano recitals. She introduced the practice of playing from memory and also moved away from mere displays of bravura technique to more thoughtful repertoire. This may explain her antipathy to Liszt. As a composer she wrote mainly for the piano and this piece (arranged for string orchestra by Andrew Moore) was originally written for piano.