My 2010 book Out of Silence has received a decade-late review in American Record Guide – in the nicest possible way. Their reviewer Bruno Repp had written a long article about lesser-known piano music he thought readers would enjoy discovering. He ended with this item: ‘I would like to conclude by recommending a book. But […]

The other day I read a review in The Guardian of a book, ‘In Good Hands’, by conductor Alice Farnham, about the art and craft of conducting. I haven’t read the book, but I was struck by several phrases the reviewer, Caroline Crampton, used when talking about classical music: The conductor stands ‘with their back […]

Last December my blog post about my favourite books of 2021 was quite popular, so here’s another round-up of the best books I read in 2022. Once again it turns out that I read over fifty books, but some were re-readings, which either does or doesn’t count, depending on your point of  view. Here are […]

This week marks the official publication date of the paperback edition of my Yale University Press book The Piano – a History in 100 Pieces, but as usually seems to be the way, copies seem to have been circulating for a while already. At least, at my Cambridge recital last week, several people had brought […]

I’m preparing for a solo recital at Kettle’s Yard museum in Cambridge on November 24th. Kettle’s Yard is a beautiful little museum which began in the 1950s as a personal art collection by Jim Ede, who used his own house as the display venue. It was the first gallery I visited where art objects were […]