James Gilchrist approached me in 2014 about his series ‘Schumann and the English Romantics’, his idea being to pair three British composers (myself, Julian Philips and Jonathan Dove) with three great Schumann song cycles, using British texts from Schumann's time.

James assigned me Schumann's Eichendorff settings Liederkreis op.39, and I chose to set Shelley's ‘Ode to the West Wind’.

The poem reflects on the powerlessness of the poet when compared to the wind, and expresses a longing to har...