In March 1830 Goethe complained to Eckermann that `everybody talks now about Classicism and Romanticism - which no one thought of fifty years ago'. Romanticism - a concept more easily recognized than defined - was the prevailing spirit of the vast outpouring of music in the sixty years chronicled in this volume. The list of major composers treated either wholly or in part will serve as an indication of its scope: Chopin, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brahms, Berlioz, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, Go...