It is a beautiful thing to behold a thorough-going professional pianist and teacher recognize the instrumental intimacy of Schumann's Album for the Young, a work which I regard as a kind of pianistic Bible.

Even the "simplest" pieces require exquisite rapport with the hand and with the sound. And all of the works are exposed to the max.

Why is it called for the Young? This morning I guessed that when it was written, in mid-19th century, a work had to be long to be taken seriously. Otherwise it was written off or, as in the case of Dvorak, simply neglected.

Has anything changed in that regard?