Robert Schumann

Schumann wrote in concentrated bursts — a year of songs, a year of chamber music — and the catalogue reflects that clustering. The piano cycles and the songs are what most people come for.

Album für die Jugend is the rare case of a great composer writing genuinely well for beginners, and it remains one of the best first books of real repertoire. Kinderszenen is harder than its title suggests but within reach of an intermediate player; Carnaval, Kreisleriana and the Fantasie are advanced.

His songs, especially Dichterliebe and the Liederkreis settings, sit alongside Schubert's at the centre of the German song repertoire and are published in the usual high, medium and low editions.