Robert Schumann's Concert Piece for four horns and large orchestra in F major, op. 86, was written in 1849 and premiered in the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1850.
In 1849, Robert Schumann was concerned with the horn as a solo instrument, among other things, and dedicated an "Adagio and Allegro" op. 70 to it before going on to compose an orchestral work with four horns used as soloists (in the same year, he also wrote "Fünf Gesänge nach Heinrich Laubes Jagdbrevier" for male choir and four horns op. 137). The sketching took place from February 18 to 20, the orchestration from February 27 to March 11, 1849.
Schumann was also aware of the qualities of the new work, which he himself described as "something quite curious", but also as "one of my best pieces".
A private performance with piano on October 15, 1849, at the home of the horn player Joseph Rudolf Levy, a member of the Dresden Hofkapelle, also featured the horn player Carl Heinrich Hübler, who himself presented a concert piece in this instrumentation a few years later.
On February 25, 1850, Julius Rietz conducted the premiere of the concert piece in the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The four soloists - Eduard Pohle, Joseph Jehnigen, Eduard Julius Leichsenring and Carl Heinrich Conrad Wilcke - were members of the Gewandhaus Orchestra. Schumann noted afterwards a "friendly reception" by the audience. A reviewer of "Signale für die musikalische Welt" wrote: "Just as strange as the idea of writing a quadruple concerto for horns must be called, just as peculiar and valuable is the composition itself [...]", but found the work too long.