The book is easy to follow, even for a reader like me, that is, one with little or no background in formal musical education. (I knew nothing about the sonata form, except for the name itself. But now, while listening to the Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, I can tell when the exposition part ends and the development part starts and so on.) The author meticulously demonstrates how Mendelssohn tried and succeeded in synthesizing form and content, that is, the traditional sonata form and extra-musical contents such as landscape, poetry and drama to which the composer strove to give musical expressions. I'd like to recommend this book to anybody who wants to know what's behind his or her sensation.

Schumann and His World is a marvelous reference for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Schumann: the man, his music, how his contemporaries viewed him, what was happening socially and in the music world at the time, and what a range of historians have to say about all of the above. It is not a biography, but rather a collection of essays, letters, memoirs and musical criticism written by Schumann himself, his 19th century contemporaries (incl Mendelssohn, Liszt, Brendel and Weingartner), and by historians of both the 19th and 20th centuries. As a source of primary materials, it is a terrific companion to a biography (I found Jensen's 2001 biography to be great). For many it may not replace the need for a biography, since there are many references that may not be understood without at least a rudimentary knowledge of Schumann's life and his music. As a lecturer in music history, I can say that this book enriched my overall knowledge of Schumann's life and his music, and the music of his time, by one hundred percent.