Written during a productive period in which he produced several large-scale chamber music works, it has been described as the "creative double" of his Piano Quintet, finished weeks earlier.

Though dedicated to the Russian cellist Mathieu Wielhorsky, it was written with Schumann's wife Clara in mind, who would be the pianist at the premiere on 8 December 1844 in Leipzig.

The second movement, a scherzo, features a quick staccato figure that moves around a G minor scale, with two contrasting trio sections.

Today, it is recognized as the culmination of virtually all previous exploration of the piano quartet as a genre up to that time, forming the foundations for later composers to build on.

[7] After making several revisions, on 24 August 1843 Schumann offered the work to the publisher Friedrich Whistling [de] and received a fee of 100 thaler.

[12] Though both displaying the "extroverted, exuberant side of the composer's creative genius", he did not consider them twins, as the absence of one violin in the Piano Quartet makes for a more intimate and individual sound, with a neo-classic tone not felt in the Quintet.

The brief introduction of the first movement (Sostenuto assai) resembles a hymn with four- and five-part harmony, all strings using double stoppings to achieve a chordal texture.

[17] Although the scherzo is marked Molto vivace, it is not exuberant in a manner similar to Mendelssohn; a "slightly sinister undercurrent" is said to emerge throughout the movement.

[18] According to musicologist Basil Smallman, it hints at the "aura of fantasy" found in various parts of Schumann's Kreisleriana, and in his setting of Heinrich Heine's "Es leuchtet meine Liebe".

[16] The scherzo features a quick staccato figure moving up and down a G minor scale:[19] There are two contrasting trios in related keys.

[18] The main theme unfolds in a "rhapsodic" manner through five variations, interjected with a chorale episode in G♭ major, and concluding with a coda.

Daverio counted these final 14 measures among the "most evocative passages in all of Schumann's chamber music", conjuring up a "psychological state in which time and space seem to have been abrogated".

[13] The premiere was successful, a critic for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung calling the Piano Quartet "a piece full of spirit and vitality which, especially in the two inside movements, was most lovely and appealing, uniting a wealth of beautiful musical ideas with soaring flights of imagination", adding that "it will surely be received with great applause everywhere, as it was here".

He recognized both works as the culmination of virtually all previous exploration of their respective genres, forming the foundations for later composers to build on.