The relationship between Berlioz and Schumann was at its closest in the years 1835 to 1837, before they ever met, when Schumann displayed the most energetic curiosity about Berlioz's music and devoted much space in his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik to his recent works. Berlioz in turn expressed admiration for Schumann's early piano works and they exchanged a number of letters. By the time they actually met, in 1843, Schumann was no longer so drawn to Berlioz as a figurehead of modern music and was much more selective in what he chose to admire. Their second meeting, in 1847, was very brief and without significance. In later years both composers moved into separate worlds, their shared youthful ardours almost forgotten. This summary can be filled out in some detail.

The name ‘Berlioz’ (without comment) first appears in Schumann's diary at the end of May 1834, very soon after the Neue Zeitschrift had been launched, at a time when no works by Berlioz had ever been played anywhere except Paris. The explanation for this is perhaps to be found in the issue of the journal of 2 June, where, at the end of the anonymous article ‘Briefe aus Paris’, which concludes with an evocation of Liszt's virtuosity on the piano, we read: ‘You may get a general idea of his playing if you could see a Berlioz symphony that he has arranged for four hands and which is shortly to be published by Schlesinger.’