An American friend has sent me an article from last Friday’s New York Times about piano competitions. Michael Johnson, who has served on prestigious competition juries, laments the corruption that allegedly prevails.
Perhaps there are competitions whose juries engage in vote-swapping, fixing, accepting bribes and all the rest of it. I’ve heard the stories too. But [...]

In the Review section of today’s Guardian, I’ve written a review of Daniel Levitin’s book, ‘The World in Six Songs’.
If you’d like to read the review, here’s the link.

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I’ve been thinking about Charles Hazlewood’s article in Monday’s Guardian. He wrote about some open-air orchestral concerts he’s going to conduct in a field in Somerset, explaining that he wants to bring great music out of the intimidating concert hall and into a fun relaxing space. Good for him. I started my professional career doing [...]

Last night, I stupidly didn’t watch the first part of the MGM Film Musicals Prom on television, and only turned on for the second half. I’m so used to concerts of this kind being slightly embarrassing; orchestras often sound uncomfortable with the idiom, and there’s an awkward air about the proceedings which I’m often glad [...]