"They wanted a member of the ensemble to play a concerto," explains Tim, who was probably the obvious 'volunteer' with other group members having more readily-fixed, non-Ensemble 360 agendas.

He does have non-ensemble commitments, chiefly his duo with cellist Adrian Brendel (son of Alfred), otherwise "not a lot, but enough whereby I feel I'm not restricted by ensemble work."

Tim has called the Schumann one of his favourite piano concertos. Any particular reason why?

"It's not piano pitted against orchestra. For me, it's more like chamber music, so I feel more confident playing it than other concertos, though it's one of the hardest in a musical sense to make convincing.

"When I was asked to do a concerto, there was no end of possibilities but I just want more chances at it because I find it so difficult for that reason.

"There are obviously difficult things like the Brahms Second (concerto) and Rachmaninov Three but this is a different sort of difficulty. It's not a stamina thing, although the last movement does contain a lot of notes that one has to get through."

Schumann wrote the work for his wife Clara, a virtuoso pianist and composer in her own right who penned a piano concerto in the same key as Robert's, A minor, in 1836.

He orchestrated one of its movements but didn't begin his until 1841, the year after they were married, and then it was a single-movement piece entitled Fantasy which became the first movement of the concerto when the second and third movements (in joint length, as long as the first) were added four years later.

Although there are flourishes, like the famous opening and the solo part is far from easy, it is essentially an introspective, even gentle work which accounts for Tim's reference to it as chamber music-like, much of the difficulty being in getting the balance with the orchestra right.

He says: "It's the interaction between piano and orchestra, particularly the wind players, which gives it the feeling of a chamber music group and makes it more inclusive in a similar way to Beethoven's Fourth Concerto which, to me, also seems to have a chamber music aspect to it."

Tim made his name and hit the music headlines playing a piano concerto, Schoenberg's, in 1995.

In his 21st year, he replaced an indisposed Alfred Brendel in two performances with Simon Rattle and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, having just graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge.

So he has concerto credentials but, since arriving in Sheffield nearly four years ago, has only played a couple with an amateur orchestra in Liverpool, a link that would seen to have been forged when the Brighton-born pianist was at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester.

He says: "I've played with them for many years because they gave me one of my first opportunities when I was 13 to 14 to play a concerto, but I haven't done any with a professional orchestra since I came to Sheffield.

"To be honest, I find concerto work incredibly stressful and chamber music-playing is my first love. I find it more rewarding to be around others.

"I've never quite understood how pianists spend their lives doing mainly solo work."

Which is not say he will not be playing his heart and soul out Schumann's Piano Concerto this Saturday.

"I like to play the Schumann as much as I can because it is very close to my heart and because it's something you can't play too many times."

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