Critical reception

‘I know my path is a fairly lonely one, with no large crowd cheering along the way to spur [me] on to work. Besides, I am understood only by a few, but for that I am compensated by three people's love: Liszt's, Clara Wieck's – and now yours.’ This passage from a letter Schumann wrote to his Belgian admirer Simonin de Sire on 8 February 1838 aptly sums up his public profile during the 1830s. His music was not widely appreciated: it was too intellectually demanding and eschewed the easy virtuosity characteristic of so many compositions of the period. Thus he was delighted by de Sire's opinion that ‘R. Schumann is primus inter omnes!’, and by his request for copies of Schumann's complete piano works. On 15 March 1839 Schumann again wrote to de Sire, listing all his published works to date. He mentioned the Fantasie, which ‘has just appeared at Breitkopf's’, and there can be no doubt that de Sire would have procured a copy as soon as possible.

Liszt's response to the Fantasie, dedicated to him by Schumann, is considered below in connection with its performance history, and something of Clara's excitement on receiving and learning the new work was noted in Chapter 1.