These three pieces for clarinet and piano are already well known under the title Phantasiestucke Op.73. What is generally known is that numerous important differences exists between the original manuscript and the first published version (the further model for all later editions). For the first time ever, the pieces are being published exactly as they appear in Schumann’s manuscript entitled Soireestucke.

All points of difference between the manuscript and the first edition are outlined in a full commentary by Richard Platt and the significance of these differences emphasised by Alan Hacker in his Foreword where he comments on the superior strength of the original: ‘greater assymetry, slightly varied harmony and many other touches all intensify passionate and impulsive instability, the main expression of the work.