The first concert of the new season for the Florestan Trio is on Tuesday 5 October at 7.30pm at Wigmore Hall, part of the Schumann bicentenary celebrations.

What is it about Schumann which makes him such a favourite of musicians? He isn’t always a favourite at the box office; in fact promoters sometimes sigh with disappointment on hearing that we want to play Schumann. His music is regarded as introvert, enigmatic, obsessive, and private. However, it’s also imaginative, touching, sincere, and memorably beautiful. Working on it is an absorbing puzzle, and it can stick in your mind almost more than the music of any other composer.

I think what Schumann-lovers sense is that his musical personality is not manipulative. His strange gestures, his sudden inspirations, his manic repetitions are not designed to be theatrical, as they would be in the work of some other composers; they’re signs of Schumann’s vulnerability, and they make us feel protective.