Schumann wrote the Nachtstücke, a set of four character pieces, upon the death of his brother, and would have entitled it Leichenfantasien (Corpse Fantasia) were it not for Clara’s intervention. The eight pieces of the Novelletten form what is at once the largest and the least known among Schumann’s major piano cycles. The music itself is of consistently high quality (years later, Schumann himself still regarded this among his most successful works), and clearly written in an exultant mood.

The second Romance in F sharp major appears on this disc as a postscript.