Clara Schumann was one of the most famous of all 19th-century piano virtuosos, admired by contemporaries such as Liszt and Thalberg. Her piano works never succumb to stereotype and the Romances anticipate the sonority of Brahms’s late music for piano. Her Variations, op.20, entwine Robert Schumann’s themes with her own in music of touching intimacy. The Preludes and Fugues reflect Clara’s love of Bach. This first volume of her complete music for solo piano is performed by the distinguished French pianist, Jean-Pierre Armengaud, who has written about Robert and Clara Schumann as well as having organised a symposium devoted to them.

Jean-Pierre Armengaud is considered a leading interpreter of French music and a specialist in impressionist and expressionist repertoire, and is renowned for his ‘fluidly supple playing, his round and mellow tone’ (Classica). He has recorded several complete collections, of piano music by Debussy, Satie, Roussel, Poulenc, Dutilleux and Denisov. Armengaud has appeared in major concert halls around the world, performing in over 40 countries. His albums for Naxos and Grand Piano feature music by Debussy, Roussel, Poulenc, Aubert, d’Indy and others, and he has a particular interest in Henri Dutilleux. He has been director for musical programming at Radio France and is associate professor at the Paris- Sorbonne University and professor emeritus at the University of Évry Val d’Essonne at Paris-Saclay University.