The motto "dwarfs on the shoulders of giants" has been used since the Middle Ages (nani gigantum humeris insidentes) to express modern culture's dependence on the ancient. Moderns are like dwarfs compared to the great thinkers and artists of the past, but by climbing on their shoulders they can see farther.

Schumann was conscious of the indivisible part he played in German musical culture from an early age. Already in his early twenties he wrote in his diary: "The future should be the higher echo of the past" and in the first issue of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (2 January 1835) he published the following programmatic manifesto: "Our intentions have been firm from the beginning, and they are quite simple: to be mindful of former times and their contributions, and to point them out as the only pure source at which present artistic endeavour can find renewed strength." In the same years Schumann summarised the history of music into ten interrelated periods each one developing from the previous one, reaching the summit with Schubert and Beethoven. The study of their works, not forgetting those of Bach, was of fundamental importance in shaping and refining Schumann's creative talent. How could one create new music after the pinnacle had already been reached? This question long tormented the young Schumann in search of a personal voice, struggling between originality and worthy continuation of the great tradition.

"From the first day I discovered somebody with great talent, wonderful musicality, wishing to understand music in a deep way" - Maria Joao Pires

"[Marco Mantovani] is one of the most wonderful and complete talents encountered in recent years. His musicianship is really of the finest kind. All parameters of the most complex repertoire are perfectly mastered, and there seem to be very few limits to what he can do, whether artistically, or instrumentally" - Aleksandar Madzar

"He is one of the most talented pianists I have heard during the last 10 years at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. During his performances he always showed a superb technique coupled with an infallible musical instinct. His affinity with Robert Schumann's work is of an extraordinary intensity" - Jan Michiel