If your music comes from your heart and soul, and if you feel it within you, it will move others in the same way. Yes: if the music comes from the depths of your soul, it will deeply touch others as well. However, it's not just the heart and soul – the mind needs to be involved as well; all three must work together (just like in a concert, for example), whether you are composing or recreating the works you interpret.

There is no contradiction between thought and feeling; both contribute to understanding. Robert Schumann was ahead of his time, not only in his behavior toward children and young people. His music heralded a multitude of musical movements that emerged over a hundred and fifty years after his death; almost every significant composer that followed recognized his influence.

Schumann's Advice for Young Musicians, which he originally wrote in 1848 as an introduction to his famous Album for the Young, remains extremely valuable even today. The famous cellist Steven Isserlis adds his own extensive comments and advice to Schumann's wise words.

Practical, entertaining, and profoundly reflective, this book is essential for every future musician as well as for music lovers of all ages.