Our series of revised Schumann editions continues with this delicately wrought set of variations. “Opus 18 and 19 are frail things for ladies”: thus, with a wink of the eye, Schumann alluded to his wish to become “the favourite composer of every woman in Vienna.”

In fact, at this time he was having trouble making headway in Vienna at all, and his dream of settling there with Clara was fading fast. The work takes its distinctive lyrical flavour from the fact that he may have wanted to accommod...